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Acc72 Posts: 1,528 Forumite
9 June 2015 at 1:48PM in
I understand that (assuming the criteria is met) that a self employed person can claim Maternity Allowance, and will be allowed to work 10 KIT days without the benefit being affected.
If you work over 10 days then you must inform the job centre who will decide to either deduct the benefit for the days worked or to stop the benefit altogether.
Now the question .... how does this work in practice?
My wife is self employed and looking to work a day or two a week for a while to keep the business ticking over for her customers (and also because she still has rent to pay) - this will clearly be over the 10 KIT days allowance.
How do the job centre work out what is to be paid ?
We are so concerned about not breaching the rules (and appearing in the local papers !) that we are even considering not applying for Maternity Allowance.
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pmlindyloo Posts: 13,077 Forumite
9 June 2015 at 2:19PM
Acc72 wrote: »
I understand that (assuming the criteria is met) that a self employed person can claim Maternity Allowance, and will be allowed to work 10 KIT days without the benefit being affected.
If you work over 10 days then you must inform the job centre who will decide to either deduct the benefit for the days worked or to stop the benefit altogether.
Now the question .... how does this work in practice?
My wife is self employed and looking to work a day or two a week for a while to keep the business ticking over for her customers (and also because she still has rent to pay) - this will clearly be over the 10 KIT days allowance.
How do the job centre work out what is to be paid ?
We are so concerned about not breaching the rules (and appearing in the local papers !) that we are even considering not applying for Maternity Allowance.
If your wife works more than 10 days then the JCP will work out how much they will deduct so basically you just need to inform the JCP.
Read this:
http://www.maternityaction.org.uk/wp/advice-2/mums-dads-scenarios/pregnant/keeping-in-touch-days/
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Acc72 Posts: 1,528 Forumite
9 June 2015 at 2:30PM
Many thanks for the link.
It is the following sentence that I would like to better understand :
If you work for more than ten days you will lose a reasonable amount of Maternity Allowance for each week in which you do some work. This will be assessed by JobCentre Plus in relation to the amount of work you have done.
Does this mean that if my wife works self employed for 2 days a week that she will effectively lose 2 days worth of Maternity Allowance ?
Does anybody know what "reasonable" means in practice and also what "in relation to the amount of work done" means ?
eg. it may be that if you work 4 days a week the Job Centre will stop all benefit, however up to a given number of days (say 3) then the Maternity Allowance will be reduced pro-rata based on the number of days worked.
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pmlindyloo Posts: 13,077 Forumite
9 June 2015 at 2:58PM
Here are the guidelines:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419819/dmgch62.pdf
62591
From reading it is unclear if there is a set formula - seems to depend on individual cases.
It is difficult to advise not knowing what kind of self employment is involved. If she continues to work as normal both before and after the birth then there would be no need to claim the MA. if she worked full time and then only works a couple of days then the link seems to suggest that they would take this into account.
Unless someone has actual experience of this then I'm afraid I can't help any more.
Good luck!
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Acc72 Posts: 1,528 Forumite
9 June 2015 at 4:00PM
Thanks again for your help - I wasn't sure if there was a set formula.
The background is that my wife is a full time self employed hairdresser - after having the baby, she wants to start back a couple of days a week in order to keep her business ticking over (and keep her regulars happy) and also as she still has rent to pay in her absence.
I was hoping that if she worked 2 days a week then she would still receive Maternity Allowance for 3 days a week (which would go towards her rent/bills) until she returns to work more hours.
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pmlindyloo Posts: 13,077 Forumite
9 June 2015 at 4:31PM
Acc72 wrote: »
Thanks again for your help - I wasn't sure if there was a set formula.
The background is that my wife is a full time self employed hairdresser - after having the baby, she wants to start back a couple of days a week in order to keep her business ticking over (and keep her regulars happy) and also as she still has rent to pay in her absence.
I was hoping that if she worked 2 days a week then she would still receive Maternity Allowance for 3 days a week (which would go towards her rent/bills) until she returns to work more hours.
So I understand it correctly - she rents ( a chair?) in a hairdressers and pays rent for this?
When does she intend to go back full time or doesn't she?
Might be worth considering giving up the 'rented chair' and doing it from home - more flexibility with a baby.
Or could she find someone who also wants to do part- time and share the rent?
Not appropriate if she rents the whole shop!
This discussion has been closed.
