Maternity Allowance and Self Employment

[aimee21]

Hi there,

I'm new here and am only just TTC so just starting to think about things properly.

I am employed part time and I have my own little business (self employed) part time too.

I don't earn enough at my employed work to gain any Statutory Maternity Pay but I've also found out that if I take Maternity Allowance then I can only work 10 days in the whole time I get the Allowance which is rubbish for someone wanting to ensure that I have a business to go back to when my Maternity is over...

Ideally I would like to be a stay at home mum who works one or 2 days a week from home on my little business, so I was going to spend from now until I have a baby working hard to make my business work. So if it comes to it and I take my Maternity Allowance, all that hard work is going to go down the drain because no clients or customers are going to wait around for that long to come back to me for work!

Is there any way I would be able to talk to the Job Centre Plus people about my Maternity Allowance and do 1 day per work self employed and just claim slightly less allowance? I'd be really happy to do that and it would mean my business would still be ok once the allowance has gone.

I know I could just not take any allowance but I've worked hard at both parts of my career and I don't yet earn enough from my business to even cover that amount so I need it to get by.

Any advice about this from other self employed mums or those dealing with Maternity Allowance would be SO helpful!

Thanks so much!

 

[aimee21]

1 day per work

That was meant to say '1 day per WEEK'

 

[MrsRH]

Hi there,

I'm new here and am only just TTC so just starting to think about things properly.

I am employed part time and I have my own little business (self employed) part time too.

I don't earn enough at my employed work to gain any Statutory Maternity Pay but I've also found out that if I take Maternity Allowance then I can only work 10 days in the whole time I get the Allowance which is rubbish for someone wanting to ensure that I have a business to go back to when my Maternity is over...

Ideally I would like to be a stay at home mum who works one or 2 days a week from home on my little business, so I was going to spend from now until I have a baby working hard to make my business work. So if it comes to it and I take my Maternity Allowance, all that hard work is going to go down the drain because no clients or customers are going to wait around for that long to come back to me for work!

Is there any way I would be able to talk to the Job Centre Plus people about my Maternity Allowance and do 1 day per work self employed and just claim slightly less allowance? I'd be really happy to do that and it would mean my business would still be ok once the allowance has gone.

I know I could just not take any allowance but I've worked hard at both parts of my career and I don't yet earn enough from my business to even cover that amount so I need it to get by.

Any advice about this from other self employed mums or those dealing with Maternity Allowance would be SO helpful!

Thanks so much!

unfortunately not

I was self employed and got MA with my first so I know about the 'rules'

MA is pay for you to be off work so unfortunatley you can't mix the 2.apart from KIT days

It might be worth calculating if working 1-2 days a week at your business pays more than the weekly rate for MA (which is £128.73)

hth, if you have any more questions, please ask and I'll try to answer

to be honest I struggled on MA as it was a dramatic difference from my self employed monthly pay and had to use savings to live on

x x

 

[suzib76]

would never suggest it but as self employed no one actually knows exactly how much and when you work.....................

 

[aimee21]

but what if I said upfront when I first went to see the people at Job Centre Plus that i want to do 1 day per week on my business, can they not just work out my Maternity Allowance based on that even if it means I get slightly less per week? I'm happy to be up front, I just want to make sure my business keeps going - I would ask someone else to help out but its graphic design so they can't really do my job!

I'd be more than happy to sit down with someone from Job Centre Plus and explain that I want to do just 1 day per week and that they can take those days moneys off me? Do you think that would work?

 

[rockstar]

U can work at all and still claim ma, they can't just take a day off what u would be entitled too .

 

[rockstar]

That was u can't work at all

 

[aimee21]

oh well. will have to hope I get some overtime in my employment to push me over the threshold for SMP then! Thanks for all your help everyone and hopeful I will be back on here soon with some actual pregnancy news! x

 

[suzib76]

with the exception of the first 6 weeks SMP is the same as MA anyway

 

[MrsRH]

would never suggest it but as self employed no one actually knows exactly how much and when you work.....................

you are probably right but as a self employed person, you have to do tax returns and declare maternity allowance on the forms.

HMRC may come sniffing if the figures don't add up

not worth the hassle, HMRC can come down on you like a ton of bricks, and expensive bricks!!

just my opinion
x

 

[suzib76]

like i said i would never suggest it

of course it all depends on the nature of the business

 

[MrsRH]

like i said i would never suggest it

of course it all depends on the nature of the business

I wondered if this was a tongue in cheek comment!!

sorry if it came across the wrong way.
x

 

[aimee21]

I totally agree!

 

[Fairybabe]

Hi there, just want to chuck my twopenneth into this discussion.

I am self-employed and currently on MA.

There is a little known clause for self-employed workers. It's not on any of the info you receive but if you get the right person on the phone when you ring up you will be told it's correct:

Once you have done your KIT days, if you then continue to work only parttime compared to what you did before (eg i did 5 full days a week) such as returning only 2 (max 3) days/week, then at their discretion they can pro-rata what you continue to receive. MA is meant to be calculated over a 7 day period. So i used to work 5 days, and so choosing to go back 2 days a week shoudl mean i continue to receive 5/7ths of the allowance until it's due to run out later this year.

As i said, no one seems to know about it until you push and they speak to a supervisor. That said, i have rung them after my 10 KIT days and been totally upfront and today have not been paid a penny. Just rang up to query it and was also told it will be based on what i earn. Which is odd, as my entitlement to SA isn't. SIGH.

Anyway, given you are only on 2 days/week self-employment anyway i'm not sure how that would work. And even if you get your employer to give you more money/hours so you qualify for SMP i think (not sure, just my opinion) that doing your self-employed work whilst on SMP would still not be allowed.

It's tough, as i'm having to go back as i'd have no client base left if i took 39 weeks off yet it looks like i will be penalised.

Hope this helps.

Fairy x