Question about Maternity Allowance

lil_lisa

At the moment i'm a full-time student and because of that i've been working full-time in the holidays and doing temp work in between assignments and antenatal appointments. I've been toying with the idea of going self-employed for a while as it would allow me to earn money around my uni schedule and it wouldn't be affected by my pregnancy. I'm due in July and this is my final year so before becoming pregnant I had always planned on going straight into employment.

Now for the question...

I don't think so far that i've worked 26 weeks in the 'test' period (some weeks the temp work has only been low pay so it hasn't been enough to pay NI so I don't think they count) and if I register as self-employed now and start paying my Class 2 National Insurance Contributions straight away then I would only have been registered as self-employed for around 24 weeks before bubz is due.

Some of the information that i've read on MA has stated that you need to have been self-employed for 26 weeks in the test period and others have said that you need to have been 'at work'. Therefore, will they combine my time being self-employed with the time being employed which will therefore be well over 26 weeks or will they simply count the time being self-employed?

BTW, I have checked and there's no problem being registered self-employed when still in full-time education.

stazi

The MA Employment Test is - employed/and or self employed for at least 26 weeks in the Test Period.