Declaring Surveys/becoming self employed?

**Bex**

katykicker wrote: »

I pay voluntary national insurance contributions, around £2.65 per week I believe, as I want to be able to use maternity benefits when my husband and I have our children. Because I'm self employed I will receive a flat rate of around £130 a week, and can keep undertaking my work alongside this, which isn't something you can do when you take maternity leave from a normal employment job.

Slightly off topic, but just to let you know that you can't work whilst claiming Maternity Allowance, other than 10 'keeping in touch' days.

Natterjack88

**Bex** wrote: »

Slightly off topic, but just to let you know that you can't work whilst claiming Maternity Allowance, other than 10 'keeping in touch' days.

It is different for self employed. I have been on maternity leave recently

System

changeforbetter wrote: »

Hi - Also a thread that is very useful for me too, thank you.

I've previously been employed, but moving more and more towards earning on a self-employed basis, mostly online now.

Can I ask anyone experienced with this:

Do you need to provide evidence for all your earnings in detail, or did you provide an overall sum/total? Especially tricky when there are different bits of earning etc.


Thanks for previous experiences.

The government have a new simplified tax system now, you provide money in/out and expenses and basically just provide the totals. You need to keep records of money in/out and expenses anyway, and keep this for around 6-7 years I believe, incase they want to ask you anything, but it is easier than it used to be.

System

Just incase anyone digs this up while searching for maternity allowance for self-employed people here is a basic run down.

Maternity Allowance (MA) is a benefit paid weekly by Jobcentre Plus to pregnant women. You might get MA if:

you are registered self-employed and paying Class 2 National Insurance Contributions (NICs), or hold a Small Earnings Exception certificate.

You must have been employed and/or self-employed for at least 26 weeks in your 66 week test period. The 26 weeks do not have to be in a row and it does not matter how much you earn. Weeks when you have not worked a full week count towards your 26 weeks.

If you are self-employed, you must be registered as such with HM Revenue & Customs according to their rules.

If you are self-employed and do not have a small earnings exception certificate, for any week covered by a Class 2 NI contribution you will be treated as having enough earnings to result in the standard rate of MA, payable at the end of the week covered by a Class 2 NI contribution.

from 7 April 2014 treated as earning £153.53

If you satisfy the employment rule and the earnings rule, you will be entitled to MA for a maximum period of 39 weeks.

The amount you get depends on your gross average weekly earnings. You will get the standard rate of MA, which is £138.18 a week (from 7 April 2014) or 90% of your gross average weekly earnings, if this calculation results in a figure which is less than the standard rate of MA.

If you have paid Class 2 NI contributions at the end of each week in your 13 week earnings period, you will be treated as having enough earnings to receive standard rate MA.

If you hold a small earnings exception for at least 13 weeks in your test period and you have no other earnings you will be treated as having earnings of £30 a week (equal to the MAT) and receive a weekly rate of MA of £27.00 (90% of the MAT).

All of this information was taken directly from here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance

Apologies for hijacking your thread a little Olivia, but I hope this helps you in the future too if you're going to be long-term self-employed and want to have children.

Basically, as long as you pay at least voluntary class 2 national insurance contributions on your earnings (£2.65 per week), even if you only earn say £30-£50 a week, you can then receive 39 weeks of maternity allowance, the current rate of which is £138.18 a week. Thus for your £2.65 per week (£137.80 a year) you'll receive £5389.02.

System

**Bex** wrote: »

Slightly off topic, but just to let you know that you can't work whilst claiming Maternity Allowance, other than 10 'keeping in touch' days.

I had previously been told by HMRC that you could continue to work when self-employed, I see online it now states about self-employed and the 10 kit days, but believe this may refer to running your own company. Either way I would clarify nearer the time. I imagine 10 days would be enough to schedule posts for my blog/Facebook page and get done what I could, plus I'll have the maternity pay to live off too

**Bex**

Natterjack88 wrote: »

It is different for self employed. I have been on maternity leave recently

Me too, hence my comment. I was claiming it through employed work last time, but had just gone self employed so asked about that too. I was told the same 10 KIT days applied, as is stated in the guidelines online.

I will check though, as I am currently self employed and pregnant again so will hopefully be claiming MA this time too.

System

**Bex** wrote: »

Me too, hence my comment. I was claiming it through employed work last time, but had just gone self employed so asked about that too. I was told the same 10 KIT days applied, as is stated in the guidelines online.

I will check though, as I am currently self employed and pregnant again so will hopefully be claiming MA this time too.

That was the case with me too Bex, when I had my lo, 10 KIT days only. I guess anyone in this situation would just need to call HMRC to double check

**Bex**

katykicker wrote: »

I had previously been told by HMRC that you could continue to work when self-employed, I see online it now states about self-employed and the 10 kit days, but believe this may refer to running your own company. Either way I would clarify nearer the time. I imagine 10 days would be enough to schedule posts for my blog/Facebook page and get done what I could, plus I'll have the maternity pay to live off too

Yes - I will check too.

If the KIT days do apply, you'd just have to be careful of declaring any income other than for those 10 days.

Great to see someone making sure people know about continuing to pay NI in order to qualify for MA though. So many people aren't aware of this and go for the low earnings certificate.

**Bex**

rachelja wrote: »

That was the case with me too Bex, when I had my lo, 10 KIT days only. I guess anyone in this situation would just need to call HMRC to double check

In my experience, the info you get depends on when you call and which adviser you get - not great!

My understanding is the KIT days do apply. It would be great if they didn't though!

System

The rules have been amended, this year. The 10 KIT days apply to maternity leave now whether self-employed OR employed.

I have read that you can allow someone else to help with your business, as long as it is for free and they're not receiving any employment based benefits. I would look into this nearer the time. Alternatively I would use my 10 KIT days to do what I could, queue posts for my FB pages/blogs and just enjoy the time off with my baby we've waited years for a baby and I've got poor health at the moment so who knows how long we will wait!