Self-employed mums could claim up to £145 a week on maternity leave

HUNDREDS of thousands of self-employed mums may be missing out on maternity pay worth more than £5,660.

Self-employed mums may be entitled to up to £145.18 a week in "maternity allowance" because they don't qualify for traditional statutory maternity pay.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by mortgage broker John Charcol reveals that there were 127,400 successful maternity allowance claims filed by self-employed mums between January 1, 2013 and December 1, 2017.

But a survey of 100 mums conducted by the broker found that more than three in 10 (36 per cent) self-employed mums failed to claim for their last pregnancy.

Given a 2018 study by self-employed trade body IPSE and Kingston University found that there are 594,000 self-employed working mums, that could be 213,840 people who are missing out.

Here's what you need to know about maternity allowance and how to claim.

What is maternity allowance?

Maternity allowance is a payment made every two or four weeks to self-employed mums and mums to be.

You can claim the following:

• £145.18 a week or 90 per cent of your average weekly earnings - whichever is less - for 39 weeks
• £27 a week for 39 weeks
• £27 a week for 14 weeks

You can claim once you’ve been pregnant for 26 weeks and payments can start 11 weeks before your baby is due.

Payments are usually paid straight into your bank account, although do be aware that these can affect how much you get from other benefits - including Universal Credit.