Maternity allowance

Redaspen85 · 21 December 2019 at 2:00PM

Hi there,

I recently got my award letter for maternity allowance and it seems they haven’t awarded me correctly.

I am self employed and would qualify for the full £148.68 per week as I’m paid up with my national insurance contributions.
I also have a part time job of 6 hours a week totalling approx £230.00 a month. Its a zero hour contract job. When I filled in the forms I included all this, payslips too as they asked for this.

They’ve awarded me 66.94 a week which would seem they’ve only used my part time job to calculate my benefit?

Is this a mistake? I did tell them I was self employed too.
I don’t want to claim for both of my jobs but I should be entitled to the full rate of MA.

I obviously can’t ring today but I will do first thing Monday. Just want a bit of reassurance that this is a mistake as I’m panicking now.
Thanks

calcotti · 21 December 2019 at 2:36PM

When you say you are paid up with your Class Ni contributions, when are you paid up to? It may be worth checking with HMRC to see what your NI record shows. If you have an online tax account you should be able to see your NI record on line too, if not you can ring 0300 200 3500.

You need to have paid at least 13 weeks of Class 2 NI out of the 66 weeks leading up to your baby's due date to qualify for the full amount https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility

I don't see how £66.94/week could be arrived at.

Are you on any other benefits? If you claim, or will claim, UC then the amount of MA you receive doesn't really matter as it is deducted in full from UC so makes no difference to your overall income.