Maternity Allowance

Overview

Maternity Allowance is a payment you can get when you take time off to have a baby.

You could get it if you:

  • are employed but cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
  • are self-employed
  • have recently stopped working
  • take part in unpaid work for the business of your spouse or civil partner

You can get Maternity Allowance for up to 39 weeks.

You can apply for Maternity Allowance as soon as you’ve been pregnant for 26 weeks. Payments can start any time between the 11th week before your baby is due and the day after the baby is born.

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 on the gov.uk website

If you’re employed or have recently stopped working

If you are not entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay

You’ll get £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is less) for up to 39 weeks if you’re employed or have recently stopped working.

You can get Maternity Allowance for up to 39 weeks. This means if you take the full 52 weeks Statutory Maternity Leave, your final 13 weeks will be unpaid.

If you have No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF)

If you have a No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition on your visa, you can still claim Maternity Allowance. Because Maternity Allowance is based on your National Insurance contributions through employment, it is not classed as a “public fund” and will not impact your immigration status

If you’re self-employed

You can get between £27 to £194.32 a week for up to 39 weeks if you’re self-employed.

How much you get depends on how many Class 2 National Insurance contributions you’ve made in the 66 weeks before your baby is due.

To get the maximum amount of Maternity Allowance that you’re entitled to, you must have:

  • been registered with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby is due
  • paid Class 2 National Insurance contributions for at least 13 of the 66 weeks before the baby is due

You may get £27 for a few weeks while your contributions are linked to your Maternity Allowance application. Your payments will be increased and backdated if necessary. This can take several weeks.

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

You can get £27 a week for up to 14 weeks if you do unpaid work for your spouse or civil partner’s business.

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

Effect on other benefits

When you claim Maternity Allowance, some of your other benefit payments may change, but your total benefit payments will usually either go up or stay the same.

The benefits affected are:

You may also be affected by the benefit cap, which limits the total amount of benefit you can get. It applies to most people aged 16 or over who have not reached State Pension age.

Use a benefits calculator to work out how your other benefits will be affected.

If you get Universal Credit

Your Universal Credit payment will be reduced by an amount equal to your Maternity Allowance payment.

You may get an extra amount of Universal Credit for your children (whether you get Maternity Allowance or not).

Universal Credit may pay some of your childcare costs if you get both Maternity Allowance and Universal Credit.

Report a change on your Universal Credit account if you start getting Maternity Allowance.

You’ll get different National Insurance credits when you get Maternity Allowance with Universal Credit. You’ll get Class 1 National Insurance credits automatically with Maternity Allowance, which help you qualify for some other benefits and the State Pension.

How to claim

You can apply for Maternity Allowance once you’ve been pregnant for 26 weeks. 

Payments can start any time between the 11th week before your baby is due and the day after the baby is born.

To get the full amount that you’re entitled to, claim within 3 months of your Maternity Allowance start date.

To claim, you’ll need a Maternity Allowance (MA1) claim form. You can either:

  • print it and fill it in
  • fill it in online and print it
  • order a form if you cannot print it

The form has notes to help you fill it in.

You’ll need to give information about your employment in the 66 weeks before your baby is due (called the ‘Test Period’). You can use the Test period calculator to work out these dates.

Send your claim to the address on the form.

Call Jobcentre Plus to ask for alternative formats of the form, such as braille, large print or audio CD.

What to send with your claim form

You need to include other documents when you send in your claim form.

You need to provide original payslips as proof of income.

You need to provide proof of your baby’s due date, even if the baby has already been born. This could be:

  • a letter from your doctor or midwife on headed paper
  • your MATB1 certificate – this must be an original version and not a photocopy

If your baby has already been born, you also need to provide proof of that. This could be:

  • a letter from your doctor or midwife on headed paper – this can be the same letter as the one proving the due date
  • your baby’s birth certificate – this must be an original version and not a photocopy
  • your MATB1 certificate, if the section about the actual date of birth has been filled in by a doctor or midwife – this must be an original version and not a photocopy

You may also need to provide:

  • your SMP1 form, if you were refused Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) by your employer
  • more information about your partner’s self-employed business and the unpaid work you do for them, if you’re applying for Maternity Allowance for up to 14 weeks

Last Updated on June 10, 2026 by Ashford Advice