Maternity Allowance- starting new job whilst pregnant...

philjones2000

More maternity allowance confusion!

My wife left her job in February- this left her with 17 of the 26 out of 66 weeks needed for MA.

She recently started a small part time job, to pick up the extra 9 weeks needed. However, a accountant type person has told me they think that this will not count as she started after she was pregnant. I can't see anything about this on the dwp or jobcentre website but this flippin benefit is sooo complicated I wouldn't put it past it being there somewhere in the small print.

Has anyone got any experience of doing something like this?

Big thanks once again to all.

Phil

callansdad

As far as i am aware that if you change jobs during pregnancy then she will still be entitled to Maternity Allowance. The best thing is to ask your local jobcentre just to double check

mummy_Jay

"They have worked continuously for 26 weeks or more. The 26 weeks is counted ending with the week immediately preceeding the 14th week before the expected week of childbirth."

As a pregnancy is 40 weeks, she needs to have started with them when she fell pregnant.

"If an employee is not entitled to SMP, but has a National Insurance record they will qualify for 26 weeks Maternity Allowance at £112.75 as an employee or a lower amount for the self-employed".

So if she was pregnant when she started the job she will only get the maternity allowance not the maternity pay. I do not see any reason why she will not get MA. Is there any issue with her national insurance record?

callansdad

When claiming SMP you need a qualifying period (referred to by mummy-jay) which is during the pregnancy but with MA she will need to submit 11 (i think, if weekly) payslips to confirm her wages which can take place anytime during the 66 weeks prior to due date/date of maternity leave start. Make sure she picks out the payslips with the highest amount (i even had a few which contained lump sums of holiday pay HTH

Spendless

The 26 weeks didn't have to be consecutive when I claimed mine. I agee with callansdad I also picked the higher showing wage packets that had bonus on them, so my mA was worked out from that.

lucysmum_2

Maternity Allowance and Maternity benefit is the same amount so it makes no difference which one she ends up having to claim. Benfit is the one your employer pays (and claims back of the government) but allowance is one you claim yourself from the DWP. The only issue is if she has not worked for the qualifying weeks then she will get incapacity benefit and then income support. You can have as many or as few jobs as long as you work the right amount of weeks and pay national insurance in those weks. Basically they are saying you have to have worked in your pregnancy to get the maternity benefit. I think your accountant friend is wrong. The maternity system changes quite regularly, from year to year, so it may be that your friend is just not up to date.

callansdad

lucysmum wrote: »

Maternity Allowance and Maternity benefit is the same amount so it makes no difference which one she ends up having to claim. Benfit is the one your employer pays (and claims back of the government) but allowance is one you claim yourself from the DWP. The only issue is if she has not worked for the qualifying weeks then she will get incapacity benefit and then income support. You can have as many or as few jobs as long as you work the right amount of weeks and pay national insurance in those weks. Basically they are saying you have to have worked in your pregnancy to get the maternity benefit. I think your accountant friend is wrong. The maternity system changes quite regularly, from year to year, so it may be that your friend is just not up to date.

The maternity benefit that you are referring to is called Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP). They are not for the same amount, they are both calculated on the amount that you earn. You need to be earning over £87 per week to even contemplate applying for SMP, which the op wouldn't get as she probably hasn't been working throughout the whole of the "qualifying period". Incapacity benefit and income support shouldn't be mentioned as i don't think it applies in this case.

The quoted post is only complicating things

WHAT TO DO:

Your wife needs to go to her employer, as she does not qualify for SMP she needs to get form SMP1 (explains why she does not qualify for SMP) filled out by them, this form is then handed in with her Maternity Allowance Claim Form (both of these forms can be obtained from the JobCentre or downloaded online and printed off)

She needs to pick out (11 i think) payslips from her employment over the past 66 weeks. When she gets her claim pack from the JC there should be a table in it with dates explaining what date she can choose her payslips from. As i said above pick out the ones with the largest amounts, they don't need to be consecutive!

Return forms & payslips to JC where they will send them off to the relevant place.

Sit back and relax and enjoy the rest of the pregnancy!

philjones2000

[SIZE=-1]Thanks to everyone. Back to filling out forms... :rolleyes:
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