missrabbit

Hi

I am after any advice regarding maternity pay in Spain (I'm in Torremolinos) for women who are autonamo.

I have been autonamo for the past 4 years. I am now 6 months pregnant. What do i have to do to get my 16 weeks maternity pay that i am entitled to? My gestor hasn't been very helpful at all and just sent me to a spanish government website where (as usual here) everything seemed to conflict with the next and seemed out of date. He has said that this isn't really part of his role so i am at a real loss!

I asked my doctor and she said that i would just have to go to the social security office AFTER i have had my baby and just show them the birth certificate. I am a little unsure whether to trust this information as she has been very vague with information in the past. Also, i am wanting to stop work about 2 weeks before my baby is due which isn't a strange thing to do so can't see it being that i wouldn't be able to start my paid maternity leave then, but would have no birth certificate?

Also, once my maternity leave of 16 weeks has finished i don't plan to work again for the first year as i will be raising my baby and my husband will be bringing home the bacon. What do i need to do then? How do i stop paying the social security (do i pay this out of my maternity pay also during the 16 weeks?) and who do i inform so the tax man isn't expecting any more dough from me each quarter if anyone?

Any help from anyone who has recently gone on maternity leave or knows anything about this would be really appreciated! The information i have received so far i honestly feel like i am the first person to ever go on maternity leave in Spain!

cricketman

My wife is also autonomo and went on maternity leave less than 2 years ago

Yes you go and show the birth certificate at the local social security office. My wife went to the social security office before the birth to ask all the questions that you have now, they were very helpful

I suggest you do the same

I will tell you a couple of things from memory, but of course you should check this out with the social security office
- It took a month to 6 weeks after birth to get the first maternity leave payment, it was 850 euros per month for 4 months
- If you want to start maternity leave before the birth then I think you need a certificate from your doctor saying that you are not fit to work which you then present to social security
- You used to get 1 year's free social security payments after the birth of a baby but they have scrapped that. Therefore the only way of not paying them is to "dar de baja" from the autonomo system. However, I am not sure whether that will affect your maternity payments, again ask
- If you go back to being autonomo after the 4 months leave than you will get a 100 euros per month payment from social security until the child is 3 years old. However, you only get this if you are working so if you stop being autonomo then you wont get any payment from the state

Given the dire state of the government's finances they are not very generous at the moment to new mothers. A few years ago you would have gotten a 3k euros check and 1 years free social security payments

Good luck!

missrabbit

Thanks cricketman!

I am going to go down to the social security office armed with a load of questions!