Maternity Allowance
Eligibility
You can get Maternity Allowance for up to 39 weeks if you’ve been either:
- registered as self-employed for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby’s due
- employed for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby’s due
If you’ve been employed, you must have been earning (or classed as earning) £30 a week or more in at least 13 weeks of your employment. The weeks do not have to be together.
You may still qualify if you’ve recently stopped working. It does not matter if you had different jobs or periods of unemployment.
You can use the maternity entitlement calculator to check your eligibility.
If you do unpaid work for your spouse or civil partner’s business
You might get Maternity Allowance for up to 14 weeks if, for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby is due, you:
- have taken part in unpaid work for the business of your spouse or civil partner
- have not been employed or self-employed
In the same 26 weeks, your spouse or civil partner must:
- be registered as self-employed with HMRC
- pay Class 2 National Insurance contributions
If you lose the baby
You may still qualify if the baby is either:
- stillborn from the start of the 24th week of pregnancy
- born alive at any point during the pregnancy