Maternity Allowance in 2022: what you could get

What is Maternity Allowance? Am I eligible for Maternity Allowance? How much is it? You could receive payments before your baby is due, if you are an employee. However, you may be able to receive the benefit other things apply and increase the amount of money you receive. Your Benefits will tell you all you need to know about Maternity Allowance.

How much is Maternity Allowance?

You may be an employee, or recently have stopped working. If this is the case, you may either receive £156.66 weekly or 90% of how much you receive weekly on average. The amount you will receive is whichever one is lower. Furthermore, you will get this amount for 39 weeks.

Disclaimer

The maximum amount of Maternity Allowance you can take is 39 weeks. As such, if you take all 52 weeks of Statutory Maternity Leave, you will not receive payments during the last 13 weeks.

You may be self-employed. If this is the case, you will be able to receive between £27 and £156.66 weekly for the duration of 39 weeks. How much you are entitled to depend on how much Class 2 National Insurance contributions you paid. More specifically, 66 weeks prior to your due date.

You may get the maximum amount of £156.66 with Maternity Allowance. However, for this, the following needs to be true for your situation:

66 weeks prior to the due date, for a minimum of 26 weeks, you were registered with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC);
66 weeks prior to the due date, for a minimum of 13 weeks, you made Class 2 National Insurance contributions.

You may have made Class 2 National Insurance contributions for fewer than 13 weeks. If this is the case, the amount you could receive will be based on exactly how many weeks you contributed for.

However, it is possible that you have not made any Class 2 National Insurance contributions. If this is the case, you will be eligible for £27 weekly.

You may work for free for the business of your civil partner or spouse. If this is the case, you could get £27 weekly for 14 weeks.

Can I increase my Maternity Allowance?

You may increase your Maternity Allowance. To do this, you will need to make Class 2 National Insurance contributions. First, you will have to send your applications. Then, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will tell you how many more contributions you have to make.

Important

For example, you may be eligible for this benefit. However, you could still make more Class 2 National Insurance contributions. Then, you will need to pay the amount indicated by HMRC. For example, if this amount is £126, you could pay this at one time, or £3.15 weekly for 40 weeks.

You can increase how much Maternity Allowance you receive. If you pay the amount of Class 2 National Insurance that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) indicates, you may receive £156.66 weekly, for a duration of 39 weeks.

How much are Class 2 National Insurance contributions? Well, they amount to a payment of £3.15 every week.

How will I be paid, and will it impact my other benefits?

You will receive Maternity Allowance either every 4 or 2 weeks. Furthermore, it is paid the same as allowances, pensions and benefits. Indeed, payments will go directly to your credit union, building society or bank account.

Maternity Allowance will not impact any tax credits that you receive. However, it will impact a number of benefits you may receive. More specifically, the following:

Universal Credit;
Carer’s Allowance;
Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) (if you start receiving Maternity Allowance, you will no longer get this benefit altogether);
Bereavement benefits;
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA);
Council Tax Reduction;
Income Support;
Housing Benefit.

Maternity Allowance is subject to the benefit cap. In fact, this limits how much you can get from benefits. Furthermore, it applies to anyone between 16 years old and State Pension age. Not all benefits may be impacted. However, it will have an impact on the total amount of money that you get.

Lastly, you may have received more money than you were entitled to. Then, this means you were overpaid. If this is the case, you could have to pay it back. Indeed, it could have been because of an accident, you may not have reported a change in your situation, or provided faulty information.

What is Maternity Allowance?

Maternity Allowance is a benefit you could receive if you are taking time off work. This is so you are able to have a baby. You could receive this benefit in a multitude of situations. Furthermore, you can receive Maternity Allowance for a total of 39 weeks.

You may make a claim this benefit after a certain amount of time being pregnant. More specifically, after 26 weeks of pregnancy. Then, you could receive payments before your baby is born, up to 11 weeks prior to the due date.

You may receive payments from other benefits. If this is the case and you get Maternity Allowance, said payments could be impacted.

Maternity Allowance rates in 2022
Work situation	Weekly pay
Employed, or recently stopped working	£156.66 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is less)
Self-employed	Between £27-£156.66
Unpaid work for your civil partner’s business	£27

Apply for Maternity Allowance

You can claim Maternity Allowance if you were pregnant for at least 26 weeks. Then, you may receive payments 11 weeks before the due date of your baby.

Disclaimer

Before you apply for Maternity Allowance, make sure that you are eligible. If you are, you will then need to complete a form. In fact, you will have to acquire the Maternity Allowance (MA1) claim form.

You can find the claim form online, on the Gov.UK website. You may then print it and complete it on paper. However, you could also complete it online, then print it. Lastly, if you are unable to print it, you may order a claim form, on the Gov.UK website.

Disclaimer

You may be unsure of how to complete the claim form. However, do not worry. The claim form has notes in it to indicate how you may complete it. This includes the address to which you will need to send your application.

For your application, you will need to include details about your employment status for the 66 weeks prior to the due date. Then, this period is also known as the ‘Test Period’. Additionally, you may need to have your claim in a different format. This can be as a CD, braille or in large font. To get this, contact Jobcentre Plus.

What happens after I apply?

Once you submit your Maternity Allowance application, you should receive a decision on your claim within about 20 (working) days. Then, if you qualify, you will receive a letter. It will ask you to indicate the last day that you are employed, prior to taking your leave.

However, you may not qualify, and your application could be rejected. If this is the case, you can ask for a ‘mandatory reconsideration‘. Note that you must do this one month within the outcome of your decision being sent to you. Then, your application will have to be reconsidered.

What documents will I need to include?

In order to apply for this benefit, you will need to include the following documents:

If your employer did not want to pay Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP): SMP1 form;
Documents proving the due date of the baby: this can be your MATB1 certificate, or a letter from your midwife or doctor, among other things;
Documents showing your income: this can be your payslips, among other things;

Your ‘proof of income‘ might be from a moment in time when you were not working but being paid (‘on furlough’). Then, include this in your application. Indeed, write the percentage of your pay that you were receiving at that time.

It could be that your partner has a self-employed business. If this is the case, you may have to include details about it in your Maternity Allowance claim. This is the case if you are applying to receive the benefit for 14 weeks.

Do I need to report a change in circumstance?

Your circumstances may change while you are paid Maternity Allowance. Then, you need to notify the office in charge of paying your benefit. Moreover, it is imperative that you report changes as soon as possible. Otherwise, you may be fined £50. It may also be ruled as benefit fraud if found to be deliberate.

The changes you will need to report are the following:

Being in police custody, or going to prison;
Changes in your bank details;
Moving abroad;
Not wanting to receive Maternity Allowance anymore;
Changing your first and/or last name;
Changing your address;
Going back to doing free work for the business of your civil partner or spouse;
Being eligible for Statutory Maternity Pay;
Working at a new job;
Either beginning to or stopping to work;
Going back to work (this also includes ‘keeping in touch days’).

You may have taken ‘keeping in touch days’ while receiving Maternity Allowance. Indeed, these are days when you worked for your employer. You must report them. Additionally, you may take up to 10 before your Maternity Allowance payments start being impacted.

You may report changes by post or phone. By phone, you may call the Maternity Allowance helpline on 0800 169 0283. You can also text them on 0800 169 0286. They are available from 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Lastly, you can report changes by post. To do so, send your change of circumstance, along with your National Insurance number to the following address:

Wrexham Maternity Allowance
Mail Handling Site A
Wolverhampton
WV98 1SU

Maternity Allowance eligibility

You could receive Maternity Allowance if you are pregnant. Then, you could receive payments for 39 weeks. This is during the 66-week period prior to your baby being born. Furthermore, the following must be true:

Your income is equal to or more than £30 weekly on average for a minimum of 13 weeks. Said weeks do not have to be consecutive;
You must either be registered as employed or self-employed for a minimum 0f 26 weeks.

Important

You may have recently stopped working. Then, you could still be eligible. Indeed, any time that you spent working other jobs do not impact your application.

It could be that you usually earn at least £30 weekly on average. However, you could have been earning less because you were being paid but were not working. This is also known as being on furlough. If this was the case under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, you still qualify. However, you must indicate this on your application form.

Because of Covid-19, you may have been paying your National Insurance bill and Self Assessment tax in instalments. If this is the case, you may not be eligible for this benefit. Moreover, contact HM Revenue and Customs prior to sending your application.

What if I do unpaid for my civil partner or spouse’s business?

You may do unpaid work for the business of your civil partner or spouse. If this is the case, you could claim Maternity Allowance for a total of 14 weeks. However, for this to be true, in the 66 weeks prior to your due date, you must have done the following for at least 26 weeks:

Not have been self-employed or employed;
Worked for free in your civil partner or spouse’s business.

Then, the following needs to be true for your civil partner or spouse, during the same time period:

They made Class 2 National Insurance contributions;
Through the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), they were registered as self-employed.

You may lose the baby. However, you may still qualify. This is the case if the baby was stillborn on the beginning of the 24th week of your pregnancy. However, you also qualify if they were born and alive at any time during your pregnancy.