Government funded hours

Just wondering if anyone in this group can help me out. So my son who will be 3 in August, currently gets 15 hours for working parents and will be entitled to 30 hours when the new term starts in September. My question is, I’ll be going on maternity leave on 9th November and I get maternity allowance because I’m self employed, which is essentially classed as a benefit I believe (not sure why because you have to pay national insurance to get it) I’ve looked online and it says you will still be entitled for 30 hours as long as you return to work within 30 days or something, which I will not be. Does this mean I'll just have to stick to the 15 hours? or will they just go off my partners wage while im on maternity leave? I dont want my son to start 30 hours for a couple of months then have to stop and go back to 15 hours, it just seems too much of a faf to me and i dont want to mess the nursery about. Thanks in advance ❤️

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The hours still apply for your eldest but not your new baby. So you can’t claim 15 hours for the baby when they are 9 months and still be on maternity leave. That’s as far as I can tell, currently on mat leave myself. The 30 days thing is you can start claiming 15 free hours for the little one if it’s within 30 days of you returning to work.

I’m currently on maternity and nursery have advised that the 30 hours do apply, as long as you return to work!

I’m not sure if allowance works different. My little one is 3 in August and I’m about to go on mat leave too but it makes no difference as I am still ‘employed’ but I am getting SMP from my employer. Technically you are still employed as you are taking a maternity allowance but not sure if it’ll be seen the same way. Sorry not much help.

If your on maternity leave you still get the 30hrs funding as long as you intend to go back to work, but I have a feeling because it’s maternity allowance and you get paid differently if your getting less then £183 a week from it then you’ll only be entitled to the 15hrs until your back working but if you happen to get over £183 in allowance then you’ll get the 30hrs.

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