Maternity allowance and national insurance

Just wondering if anyone knows how to clear things up for me as I’m finding contradicting info online! I went self employed in this financial year. Literally went self employed on the 1st April 2023, so I have not done a self assessment yet. The gov site says I need to have paid national insurance in the so many weeks leading up to the due date, but obviously I won’t pay this until I do my Next self assessment, and because I’ve not done one yet, they don’t know what I earn … worrying I’ll only get the £30 a week?! I did check online and I have 9 weeks national insurance credits, so I’m hoping that helps! I also tried to set up voluntary NI payments but I don’t have the correct ref number to be able to do this. Is there a way to ensure I get the full stat amount? Really grateful for any help and advice xx

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When you send off your maternity application you will get a letter asking if you want to make a ni contribution so you get the full amount xx

The letter will explain how to pay and how much, I think my last one was about £126 and I think they might have taken it out of the first mat payment but I can’t remember for sure. Just don’t stress because I was so stressed about this… there’s literally no clear answers online but yeah it will all work out fine, they will give the option to pay it xx

It might even have been a way lesser amount I actually can’t remember 🤣

@Anika thanks so much! This is just what I needed to hear :)

Hi, I have just had my letter about mat pay and got given £27 a week 🤦🏼‍♀️ I was so stressed and overwhelmed, with 6 weeks to go. You can’t complete the gov forms until a certain period in your pregnancy and they took like 6+ weeks to get back to me to tell me I have £27 a week. The reason it’s so low is because as you said they look at a ‘test period’ which is I think 66 weeks before your baby is due. If your self employed, like you mentioned you won’t have even done your self assessment yet for that period (I’m due April). My letter telling me the rubbish news of £27 a week did say I will receive another letter within 10 working days on how I can top up my NI. Then once paid it will take 22 working days for a decision. It’s going to mean I now don’t get mat pay until after I start my maternity and luckily my partner is able to support me, but so frustrating. Completely out of my control, as self employed business owner I can’t pay the NI anyway so it’s just frustrating