To be panicking about money whilst on maternity leave?

[CobaltRose]

Hi everyone. I'm 21 and ten weeks pregnant, and am already panicking about how we're going to manage financially once I go on maternity leave! This pregnancy was very much unplanned (contraceptive failure), before people start harping on about being responsible....

Anyway... This'll be long as I tend to waffle!

Currently, I live with my fiancé in a privately rented 1 bed flat. He is only contracted to work 12 hours a week but has NEVER only worked 12 hours in the whole four years he's worked there. He works, on average, 40 hours a week. Sometimes more. He earns around £1200 a month (sometimes more depending on how many hours he's worked) which is enough to cover our rent and utility bills. He normally has around £150-£200 left over once everything has been paid, which he puts into a savings account. I understand we're lucky in that respect, as some people don't have anything left over at the end of the month!

Now, as for me, I only work part time as I'm currently a full time student. I only work ten hours a week and am paid £71.25 a week. I only have to pay for our broadband (£24 a month) and food (around £50 a week). As I'm currently still a student I am in receipt of maintenance loans (£2300 every three months). I have been saving this up, but gave my parents £1000 as my dad was made redundant and they were really struggling with money. This was in early January before I moved in with my partner and before I discovered I was pregnant.

However, since discovering that I was pregnant I have decided to defer my studies for a year. I'm still planning on completing my first year (which will finish end of April) so will receive another loan payment in April, but that will be it until I return to my studies next year. I currently have around £2500 in my account, which was from selling my car. So, once I receive my next loan payment I will have just under 5k in my account.

On top of this I'll still be working part time, so will continue to get £71.25 a week in wages. However, I am terrified of how our financial situation will change once I go on maternity leave!

I'm not due until late October, and am planning on working for as long as I possibly can, so am not planning to go on maternity leave until September. Because I don't earn enough to qualify for SMP, I'd have to be in receipt of MA, which will only be around £64 a week for 29 weeks and £27 for 14 weeks! Better than nothing, but still not a lot. Because of this I'm not planning on taking the full year off, as I think we really wouldn't be able to afford it. Thankfully we've got grandparents who are able and willing to look after baby on the weekend, so I am seriously considering returning to work after six months, much as I'd like to take the full year off. I'm also considering taking a part time job during the week as well as the weekend, as my fiancé has one day off during the week where he could look after baby.

That's all well and good once I'm ready to go back to work, but I'm really concerned about how we'll manage financially in the months that I'm not working.

Am I being unreasonable for thinking that we could probably manage on OH's salary and the money I have saved up in my account for the few months that I'm on maternity leave? I know we'd get child benefit once baby is born too, but it's only £20 a week. I go from thinking 'Yeah, we'll be fine! We wouldn't be able to afford luxuries but we'll all be fed and warm which is the main thing!' to 'Aaaargh! How on earth will we survive!' I know we'd probably be entitled to some kind of benefit but I don't really want to go on them if we could manage without.

Perhaps I'm just being too anxious. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

I am in your situation but I had my baby in October and I’m going back to uni in September 😅
If you live in London you should dm me !!
If you have a girl I can send you my daughters clothes if you want !
Also I wasn’t able to do this but look into getting a council flat as rent is so much cheaper !!
Also child benefit, child tax credits, maybe working tax credits? Healthy start vouchers, there’s a £500 sure start maternity grant you can claim from 29 weeks to 3 months post partum if u have child tax credits/income support etc.
Everything will work out don’t worry❤️

He also wouldn’t be entitled to paternity leave if he changed jobs now.

With regard to my earlier posts, it's clear OH works hard. There were a lot of responses focusing on the OP increasing her working hours etc. I just feel that so often so much of the responsibility - including the financial responsibility - falls on the pregnant woman and partners could take on more responsibility for finances during maternity leave. I always find it sad when I read on MN about women who have had to use their personal savings on maternity leave when they have a partner who could have contributed more.

The reason for my suggesting increase in hours was to get op above the threshold for smp with her current employer.

I was on 1200 pm before i fell pregnant. I got smp of 550 pm and we managed. I now get 320 pm and we still manage.

Yes formula is expensive but aldi now do their own for £6 a tub. However breastfeeding is cheaper. I couldn't do it unfortunately and so our biggest expense was formula.

We got a big tub with a lid for a sterilizer. 59p bottles of fluid from home bargains.

Clothes from eBay or charity shop. Odd thing bought new in a sale.

Pram was from charity shop for 50 in excellent condition. So much so we sold it on for more.

Cot was new from a catalogue for 80. Mattress was about 50.

Moses basket again charity shop with new mattress.

Are you in Scotland or England? As Scotland have free baby boxes for parents with stuff in it.

If you are careful and frugal with your money, you will be fine. Things often have a way of working out. You and your fiance sound sensible, so don't worry too much. Would you or your fiance be entitled to working tax credit?

Are you able to use spreadsheets? I have a simple spreadsheet for finances, where in the columns I put January to December and then i list all sources of income in each month and then all lines of expenditure. I can then tell month by month whether income is more than expenditure in which case I can put the balance into savings, or whether expenditure is more than income in which case I need to either use some savings or try and reduce expenditure or increase income. Hope that makes sense!

If grandparents are doing childcare and things are tough then you go back to work after 3/4 months - needs must

I agree with the others. If grandparents are willing to do some childcare then you can go back to work much earlier. I started a new, full-time job when my DD was 2.5 months. Though that was more because I wanted the job than because we needed the money. DH did childcare until the nursery would take her at 3-5 months.

And increase your hours/earnings once your studies have finished.

But don't be too proud to take benefits that you are entitled to. That's what they are there for.

I would be more nervous about what would happen if he started getting only 12 hours a week. Long term I would be keen for him to get a contracted position for more hours.

Apologies if I have read this wrong but where are you getting your MA figures from? It should be 39 weeks at £64 ish for you (90% of the figures you gave?).

@Thundercracker, ah yes, you're correct. It would be 39 weeks, not 29. Apologies.

Are you in Scotland or England? As Scotland have free baby boxes for parents with stuff in it.

Or Wales or N. Ireland.

I'm in the south east of England.

Thank you everyone for your advice and guidance. It has really helped and calmed me down a little.

I've been rightfully corrected about MA. I'd get £64 a week for 39 weeks, not 29. Plus child benefit once baby is here.

So, my plan now is.... WALL OF TEXT INCOMING

Carry on working at my current job for as long as possible until I go on maternity leave (which hopefully won't be until September ish). Unfortunately I cannot increase my current hours for reasons I have stated further up the thread (difficulty in getting there, the hours just not being available). I'll claim MA once I go on maternity leave, and possibly universal credit if we must (I know it's probably quite pathetic, but I've always been a bit wary to claim benefits, probably because of the stigma surrounding them. But like others have said, they are there for a reason, and it would only be a temporary measure). We may dip into my savings if needs be but if we're careful we may not need to.

I will then return to my current job when baby is around 3 months old. However, this will only be temporary until I can find a job that is closer to home and has more hours. I don't think I'm entitled to MA if I leave my current job whilst I'm on maternity leave, though I may be wrong about that. Unfortunately I don't think it'll be possible for me to work full time just yet, as we wouldn't be able to find childcare. The nearest nursery is a twenty minute drive away and neither me nor OH drive, and wouldn't be able to afford to run a car even if we did. All four of our parents are willing to babysit ON THE WEEKEND but cannot babysit any other day as they all work the rest of the week. Plus once I return to uni I wouldn't be able to work full time anyway.

However, as OH has Fridays and Saturdays off I could find a job that offers Friday, Saturday, and Sunday hours and have OH look after baby on Friday and Saturday, and grandparents babysit on Sunday. We live in the centre of a busy town surrounded by shops and small businesses, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a job.

Then, once I return to uni finances wouldn't be as big of a worry as I would be entitled to maintenance loans and a parent allowance. Thankfully my uni has a nursery on campus, so I would be able to take baby with me to uni. Of course I would carry on working during the weekends.

Oh, and my OH has asked if his contracted hours can be increased, but unfortunately has been told that he will have to wait until his line manager returns, and she's on extended sick leave (been off for six months already). So, not a lot of luck there so far.

Thanks again everyone. Writing all of this down has made me calmer and realise that my situation isn't as dire as I first thought. Many people manage in far worse situations than I, and many aren't lucky enough to have supportive family nearby.

@titty terribly sorry I forgot to mention other places but I don't think anywhere else in UK does the box.

I can’t see how it makes sense to go back to work when baby is 3 months old if you can’t work more hours.

Check the tax credits position. Your maternity allowance wouldn’t count as income so you’d be better off staying on MA at 90% of your pay, surely? When you go back to work your income will drop.........

@TittyGolightly, I can work more hours if I found another job that offered more hours, which is what I'm planning to do.

According to the gov.uk website, MA does affect the amount of universal credit you may get. I live in a UC area, so will no longer be eligible for tax credits. It's UC or nothing (aside from child benefit). However, you are right in that the more hours I work the less UC I'd receive. Surely the extra income from my extra hours, on top of child benefit, would balance that out, though?

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/what-youll-get

Listen to TittyGolightly. She sounds like she knows what she's talking about. I don't. My situation was totally different as I wasn't entitled to any benefits whatsoever having just come back from studying in the US. And I can't get my head round maternity pay being available for so long now!

You might get a small amount of help with council tax. (If you currently get single person discount do check how you will be treated if you aren't studying.)

Not something I’ve done myself (claim benefits). Does universal credit not discount up to £100 per week while on mat leave?

www.entitledto.co.uk/?utm_source=BAdviser&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=GovUK

Run the 2 scenarios through here.

You sound like you’ve got your head screwed on and are thinking things through. Lots of people much older than you just bury their heads in the sand about money so you’re general attitude will help you a lot.

As a slightly random point, If you have any exams this term or the summer speak to your uni about whether you would be able to have some extra time. I did exams while very pregnant and was allowed extra time for toilet breaks and it made a difference. If you’re getting any sickness it will also be important to get some consideration/extra time. Getting through your degree will help you so much with future options so make sure you get as much help that is offered to help you through (now and when you return post baby).

@TittyGolightly, I ran the two scenarios through the calculator. Apparently we'd be entitled to £170 a month in UC if I stayed on maternity leave, and nothing if I worked 24 hours a week. I expected that, but surely my overall income would be better if I worked as, well, I'd be earning more money?

I don’t know what you earn so can’t do the maths on that!

Be careful with tax credits though as it goes on the previous years income. I applied after baby was here but because our joint earnings for 2016/17 were high we got nothing. I had to phone them to say both earnings had went down by over 2500 and that I was on maternity pay so got it eventually.

Now even though our earnings are less than 9k for the year we still don't even get healthy start vouchers etc because we get a small amount of working tax credits.

@TittyGolighty, I currently earn £71.25 a week. £64.12 a week MA for 39 weeks.

In regards to the 'working three days' scenario I simply calculated what I would earn if I worked 24 hours a week at minimum wage (which is currently £7.05 an hour) - £676.80 a month.