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Maternity Allowance: Any experts/advisers?

Posted by scotschick on Thu, 04/03/2010 - 15:31

Just wondering if anyone has dealt with this at all as the form is as clear as mud and the JC website/helpline are clueless to advise.

The employee decided to leave her job after she found out she was pregnant for the 3rd time whilst she was still on Maternity Leave (she already had two children and did not want to go through the hassle of childcare for the sake of a few months).

Well now she has finished her maternity leave she is hoping to claim MA.  However, on the actual form it asks a) whether or not she left to have her baby and b) if so when did she start her maternity leave (I'm slightly confused on this term as to me, maternity leave is an employers benefit and if she was receiving 'maternity leave' she would be getting SMP in which case she wouldn't be entitlted to MA).  So my question is, which applies? The MA helpline advised me to put the date she started maternity leave with her last child, but that would be outwith the 66 week test period; when I stated this the girl agreed and said she didn't know.

Any advice or pointers here would be grateful.  At the moment she just plans to asterisk this area and write in the notes her situation.

Thanks a lot

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