Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for maternity allowance were (a) received, (b) accepted and (c) rejected in the latest year for which figures are available.
MA Claims received - 99750
MA Claims accepted - 86100
MA Claims refused – 14950
Figures provided are for the year March 2018 - February 2019
The data provided is sourced from management information.
Data are published quarterly on the number of commencements to Maternity Allowance on a rolling basis up to February 2019 at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/maternity-allowance-quarterly-statistics
The quarterly commencements do not sum to the annual claims accepted quoted above as the published data is subject to substantial retrospection from late notifications to the computer system, as noted in the publication. These figures also exclude a small proportion of clerical cases.
The reasons for the MA claims being rejected are:
Customer has not satisfied the Employment Test
Customer has not satisfied the Earnings Test
Customer has claimed MA whilst receiving SMP
Customer/ Employer has failed to respond to requests for information/ clarification within the requested timescales