Maternity allowance and last invoice payment

Hello, For UK self employed mums or mum to be. I'm self employed, due 17th Jan and planning to stop working the last week of December. I picked the 6th January to start my maternity allowance however I remember reading that you can't receive money after that or it'll stop you receiving your allowance. How does it work for us self employed women? Does it mean I need to have invoiced my clients so they pay me before the 6th Jan or is it based on the invoice date? So as long as I invoice before that date then that's ok? I don't know if I'm explaining myself correctly but basically if I finished work on the 2nd of Jan and I invoice my client, I won't receive payment until 2nd Feb and I'm worried this will make my week maternity allowance stop? Or as long as I invoice before 6th Jan then it's OK? Shall I just move the maternity allowance to my due date (17th Jan) and ensure I invoice before so I get paid before the 17th? Any help / clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Hi, I'm in a similar boat...it is so stressful and difficult to understand. As I understand it is that has long as you secured the client booking prior to maternity leave you are all ok. I found a really good website...the best explanations I have seen so far. It is saved on my laptop at home, I can send you this once I am home tonight.

@Amy it really is so confusing isn't it? Oh thank you that would be really kind. I tried to look it up online but it's honestly so confusing with a lot of contradicting information. I will also check with my accountant but I wanted to see if it was a known thing here first. I'll let you know if I do ask my accountant, what she says!

Since you’re still eligible to do 10 kit days while on maternity, I would assume that receiving this one payment won’t impact your MA. Also, how will they know what you have coming in until you declare it?

@Hannah that's a good point! I don't know if kit days apply to self employment? But I think I read you can work up to 10 days so that's probably what I read about. I really wish the information out there was more straight forward. Add on top pregnancy brain and it makes it all so overwhelming 🙈😂

@Aurélie yeah they really don’t make it straight forward.

@Aurélie https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/maternity-and-parental-rights-for-self-employed-parents/ this is the website I found helpful. I'll be really interested to see what your accountant says.

Not much advice but I’d imagine if the date is on the invoice then that’s your proof if you ever to prove it. I’m a self employed hairdresser I called MA on my first maternity leave and we are allowed to do 10 KIT days as long as you keep a note and call them to let them know dates. You could always call them and ask to double check because they never make things simple x

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