Shortfall for mothers under self-employed rescue scheme

MORE than half a million selfemployed mothers could miss out on vital state support if they have taken maternity leave in the past three years.

The Government will pay 80pc of a self-employed person’s income, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month for an initial three months, if their earnings have dropped because of coronavirus.

The support received is calculated by taking the average of profits over the past three years. Mothers who took time out of work to look after their newborn babies are not allowed to discount their maternity leave, dramatically reducing their average earnings per year.

The maximum amount a selfemployed mother can claim while on maternity leave is £151.20 a week for up to 39 weeks in statutory maternity allowance. Those who have not paid enough class 2 National Insurance contributions will receive just £27 a week. You must have paid for at least 13 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby is born to get the full amount.

More than 40pc of the nation’s five million self-employed people have dependent children. Around 600,000 are women, more than a third of whom work full time, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Andrew Chamberlain, of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-employed, said: “There are lots of people excluded from this vital financial lifeline, including women who may have taken time off work in previous years to look after a newborn child, who are now seeing the grants they are entitled to under the state support system significantly reduced.”

A Government spokesman said the system did not identify differences in why people may have taken time off.