To worry that I will need to go back to work before I am ready to leave my baby?

[sabas]

First post, so please be gentle! I am nearing the end of my 39 week ordinary mat leave, so my statutory mat pay is about to come to an end. As I am classed as working 35 hours because of being in the ordinary mat leave period, I am in reciept of working tax credits of abou £200 as well as CTC of £250. Tax Credits people have told me that as soon as my ordinary mat leave comes to an end, our WTC will cease as my DH only works 20 hours per week . I am worried that once the WTC ends, there will be no increase in the CTC we recieve and that we will be worse off to the tune of about £700 (£500 mat pay and £200 WTC) and I will be forced to go back to work before the 12 months I had planned to take. Will out CTC be increased to cover the lower income or will I need to go back to work?

YANBU to be worried about going back to work before you would ideally wish to; but hey, for better or worse, welcome to the real world.

Regarding tax drecits, I thought the threshold was 16 hours, with a 'brucie bonus' for working 30 hours + ?

Others will know more. I know very little.

Drecits. A little known eastern european currency.

You're not being unreasonable to worry but at least you have had 39 weeks. The majority of my friends have needed or felt like they needed to go back at 5/6 months for either financial or career progression reasons.

You feel how you feel, your feelings can't be unreasonable.

But you'd probably be a bit unreasonable not to go back to work. Nobody needs 12 months maternity.

I don't think you are ever 'ready' to go back to work after your first baby. The first few weeks are awful. It does get better. Eventually you actually might look forward to going to work and getting to have a cup of coffee in peace.