Boosting income whilst on Maternity Allowance?

Nikadi

I know that the answer is in these forums somewhere (or the gov site but I can't find it there either!) but I cannot find it! I'm self employed and pregnant. I plan to go on Maternity in February and I'm eligible for Maternity Allowance.

What I'm trying to work out is both whether I'm allowed to start working on a new business whilst I'm on maternity or even earn anything from boosting income type things that I would like to get back into (swagbucks, surveys, and similar) and passive income sources like affiliate programs.

So am I allowed to earn from anything whilst I have maternity allowance?

Browntoa

Under £1000 a year is fine and not declarable, over that need to register as self employed. All declared earnings are totalled and taxed accordingly either at basic rate or higher rate

Nikadi

I did wonder if it would fall under that rule, but I can't find anything confirming that it does on the gov site.

chrisbur

Some information about this can be seen here....
https://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/what-work-can-you-do-during-maternity-adoption-parental-leave/

and the full details for MA and SMP are here....
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance

As far as I know the rule regarding not declaring self employed earnings up to £1000 has not altered the rules regarding MA where you are "supposed" to declare any work that you do other than KIT days.

Wizzbang

Nikadi wrote: »

I know that the answer is in these forums somewhere (or the gov site but I can't find it there either!) but I cannot find it! I'm self employed and pregnant. I plan to go on Maternity in February and I'm eligible for Maternity Allowance.

What I'm trying to work out is both whether I'm allowed to start working on a new business whilst I'm on maternity or even earn anything from boosting income type things that I would like to get back into (swagbucks, surveys, and similar) and passive income sources like affiliate programs.

So am I allowed to earn from anything whilst I have maternity allowance?

I was in the exact same position as you last year, started my MAT in Feb due to health issues and just ran out now in Nov. Is this your first? I'm guessing so if you're asking this question.

Mine was my first and I was completely naive in thinking about how soon I'd be ready to go back to work, especially bear in mind that you only get a fraction of what employed people get. My advice is - enjoy every second with your baby and don't even think about anything else! You never get that time again and for the first 3 months at least you'll be too exhausted to think about literally anything else.

If you must do something, then just get back to some online earning like Swagbucks or similar, nothing too onerous. I don't think that maternity leave is the right time to start thinking about a new business! I run my own business and I literally just switched everything off for 6 months. HTH