Maternity allowance for self employed

supersaverkerry

Hi

Looking for some advice for a friend please.

She is self-employed and earns £5500 per year so has a small earnings certificate for exemption on national insurance.

She is now 18 weeks pregnant and thinking about what maternity benefits she may be able to claim and looking online it seems since she has the small earnings certificate she can only get something like £28 per week in maternity allowance.

Doing some reading on various forums it looks like if you don't hold a certificate you can get 90% of your actual income and since she earns just over £100 every week she would get about £90 if she paid NI of £2 something each week.

The question is, if she cancels her certificate now and pays NI despite earning under the threshold to have to pay it can she then claim full MA? As this would mean she pays around 18 weeks of NI before she goes on maternity leave ( she works from home and says she plans to work up till 38 weeks). or does the fact she earns under the threshold mean even if she pays voluntarily she will only get the lower amount of MA ?

Becles

There's two rates of MA for self employed ladies. The lower rate is the £28 paid to those with the Small Earnings Exemption certificate and around £130 a week paid to those who have paid enough Class 2 NI.

I'm not sure if she can start paying NI now so she can claim the higher amount though.

pmlindyloo

supersaverkerry wrote: »

Hi

Looking for some advice for a friend please.

She is self-employed and earns £5500 per year so has a small earnings certificate for exemption on national insurance.

She is now 18 weeks pregnant and thinking about what maternity benefits she may be able to claim and looking online it seems since she has the small earnings certificate she can only get something like £28 per week in maternity allowance.

Doing some reading on various forums it looks like if you don't hold a certificate you can get 90% of your actual income and since she earns just over £100 every week she would get about £90 if she paid NI of £2 something each week.

The question is, if she cancels her certificate now and pays NI despite earning under the threshold to have to pay it can she then claim full MA? As this would mean she pays around 18 weeks of NI before she goes on maternity leave ( she works from home and says she plans to work up till 38 weeks). or does the fact she earns under the threshold mean even if she pays voluntarily she will only get the lower amount of MA ?

According to this:

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/a1144746-PSA-Maternity-Allowance-and-small-earnings-exceptions

You need to cancel the certificate and then pay at least 13 weeks of class 2 contributions before the 40 weeks.

However, this is from a forum so best to check by ringing to confirm.

sheramber

https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility

supersaverkerry

pmlindyloo wrote: »

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According to this:

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/a1144746-PSA-Maternity-Allowance-and-small-earnings-exceptions

You need to cancel the certificate and then pay at least 13 weeks of class 2 contributions before the 40 weeks.

However, this is from a forum so best to check by ringing to confirm.

Yes this is what we thought from what is online, but wasn't sure if this was correct as surely everyone would then stop their certificate and start paying NICs so they could get the higher amount.

sheramber

supersaverkerry wrote: »

Yes this is what we thought from what is online, but wasn't sure if this was correct as surely everyone would then stop their certificate and start paying NICs so they could get the higher amount.

see above link