The Freelance & Self-Employed Clique

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!

Just wondering if anyone knows how to clear things up for me as I’m finding contradicting info online!

I went self employed in this financial year. Literally went self employed on the 1st April 2023, so I have not done a self assessment yet.

The gov site says I need to have paid national insurance in the so many weeks leading up to the due date, but obviously I won’t pay this until I do my Next self assessment, and because I’ve not done one yet, they don’t know what I earn … worrying I’ll only get the £30 a week?!

I did check online and I have 9 weeks national insurance credits, so I’m hoping that helps! I also tried to set up voluntary NI payments but I don’t have the correct ref number to be able to do this.

Is there a way to ensure I get the full stat amount?

Really grateful for any help and advice xx

I’m just curious to how long people have off work? I know it depends on the person but I’m panicking about losing my clients!

Hello ladies,

I'm a newbie to freelancing and am close to securing my first piece of work. The company has asked how much my daily rate is and I'm completely clueless as to how go begin calculating this as I've always been in full time perm roles.

By way of background, I have 15 years experience in pharma market research (qual and quant) and will be working for an independent pharma insights consultancy for 2-3 months (hopefully four days a week) and WFH.

Any advice on a ballpark figure or how to set out working it out would be hugely appreciated! X

Is anyone here self-employed (sole trader) and knows how to complete the MA1 claim form? On the Gov website it states you need to send proof of earnings, so for me is that my self-assessment? It also says you need to provide proof of due date? I have scan reports from the hospital with the due date on it so can I send a copy of those? Thanks