Maternity Allowance and National Insuarance payments, help please.

[Tippy Toes]

Hi All

I have today officially started my maternity leave! Hooray, very glad as I'm due on Wednesday

I have filled all my forms in and sent them of in order to claim Maternity Allowance, called the jobcentre today hoping it would speed up the process.

Anyway jobcentre are very vague on when I will receive my first payment, 2 - 3 weeks late but even then she was not sure, has anyone claimed Maternity Allowance and if so could you tell me how long it took to receive the first payment and where the payment regular after that? I have asked to get it paid every 2 weeks starting from today.

Also what about NI? I asked jobcentre who really did not know and advised me to call HMRC which I did. But they where really no help at all. told me jobcentre would pay it but I would need to keep my direct debit going as well? So confused.

Any help greatly appreciated xx

[Kirsty90]

I am on maternity leave at the moment too. I sent my forms off on my last day of working which was the 28th march & I received a letter stating my claim had been accepted about 10 days later. I got my first payment last Wednesday (17th) and will get it every 4 weeks from then. They seem to be quite quick in sorting maternity claims out as there was a bank holiday weekend within that time and I still heard back within about 10 days.

Hope that helps x

[Tippy Toes]

Thank you for your help xx