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Do you qualify for Maternity Allowance
benefits?
You may qualify if you are not entitled to receive
Statutory Maternity Pay from you previous employer - or employers -
but have either been self-employed or employed for a minimum of
twenty six (26) weeks out of the sixty-six (66) weeks before the
birth of your baby. Together with this, your gross weekly pay
(before any deductions - should have been £30.00 a week or more, and
have stopped work in order to have your baby.
Test Period
The Department of Work and Pensions call the 66
weeks before the expected birth of your baby, as the Test Period!
The period is worked out as being from the date of expected birth -
not the actual time of birth! For this period, 'employment' for part
of a week is seen as being employment for a whole week!
If you were not employed during the 15th
week before the due date of your baby, or if you have not been with
the same employer for long enough, you may not be entitled to
Maternity Allowance. There might also be a problem if you did not
earn enough. (Minimum of £30.00 per week gross)
Who is entitled to MA - Maternity Allowance?
There is a certain amount of checking to be done
by the Department of Work and Pensions to ensure that you are
entitled to Maternity Allowance. For employed persons, they may - or
may not - check your information with your employer, to ensure that
it is correct. For self-employed people, you will need to have
registered for self-employment with the Inland Revenue - HM Revenue
and Customs. This is a legal requirement for being self-employed. If
you simply worked 'cash in hand' that is NOT lawful self-employment!
If that is the case, you may lose some or all of your Maternity
Allowance!
(When the DWP talks about 'employer' they mean
someone who has been liable to pay your NI Class1 contributions. If
you did not earn enough to pay NI, then the company is still your
'employer'.)
Even if you are not a UK citizen - but you have
permission to work - you may still be entitled to maternity
Allowance.
When Should You Claim Maternity benefit?
- NOT before the start of the fourteenth week
before the expected birth of your baby.
- If you are still working - claim as soon as
you are entitled to. The DWP will contact you at a later date to
ascertain the date you actually stopped work.
- You will need a MA1 Claim Form. This should
NOT be dated earlier than the fourteenth week before you are due
to have your baby.
- In the case of an early birth, then claim
right after your baby is born. The Test Period mentioned above,
will still remain the same.
Time limit for claiming maternity Allowance
Claim within 3 months of the date your Maternity
Allowance Period is due to start, or you will lose money!
Expected date of of your Baby being Born.
If you claim before your baby is born. (The date
of expected birth, will be in part A of your Maternity certificate,
which you get from your doctor or midwife after the 21st week of
your pregnancy.)
If you claim after your baby is born, the date is
in Part B of your Maternity Certificate MAT.
Payment of Maternity Allowance
Maternity Allowance Period starts on the Sunday of
the 11th week before the week you expect to have your baby, if you
are not employed or self employed at this time. If you are
self-employed or employed still at that time, you can choose when
you would like your maternity Allowance to start from.
The latest date you can start your Maternity
Allowance, is the day after your baby is born.
You cannot receive SSP and Maternity Allowance at
the same time. If you are getting SSP, you must tell your employer
when you are to start receiving Maternity Allowance. If you don't do
this and you receive both, you will HAVE to pay back the SSP. You
could even be accused of fraud if there was a dishonest motive!
If you give birth earlier than expected, tell
Jobcentre Plus straight away. Your Maternity Allowance must start if
you give birth before you have had a chance to start your maternity
leave.
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Employment and Support
Allowance or Incapacity Benefit will stop. Your Maternity Allowance
will start the day after the first day you are sick and absent from
work.
How the amount of your Maternity Allowance is
calculated.
- If you are employed, you must earn at least
£30 a week on average. This is GROSS pay before any deductions
such as tax and NI contributions.
- We take an average your pay over any 13 weeks
'Test
Period'. It can be any 13 weeks in that period!.
- The Department of Work and Pensions will
add together your gross earnings from each of the 13 weeks in
which you earned the most. They will then divide the total by 13
to get an 'average'.
- the DWP will want to original payslips for
the 13 weeks you choose - NOT photocopies!
- The Maternity Allowance you receive, will be
either the standard rate of MA or 90% of your average gross
weekly earnings. Whichever is the LOWEST!
Self Employed
- For self-employed persons, who are REGISTERED
as being self-employed! And. have paid Class 2 National
Insurance contributions, and do not hold a Small Earnings
Exception certificate. You will be treated as having enough
weekly earnings to result in the standard rate of Maternity
Allowance for any week covered by that Class 2 National
Insurance contribution. In other words, you will be treated as
though you have average earnings of £30.00 per week.
- You will need to have paid at least 13 class
2 NI contributions during the TEST Period, or you may not get
Maternity Allowance.
- More help here
www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/ni17a the Job Centre Plus can also
advise you on these items.
This Link will Take you to a download PDF for the MA Claim Form
(Maternity Allowance Claim Form - which you can print
off, and fill in.
Any Experiences good or bad with this subject -
Please email us here.
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