May 2017 #6........ 'Half way there and trips to Mothercare'

[Adventuregame]

And the chat/moans/advice/excitement continues.............any newbies welcome !

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but do any of you know if I can claim any "benefits" whilst being on maternity? My employer gives 4.5 months at full pay then it drops to SMP then nothing for the last 13 weeks. I was intending on having six months maternity as we cannot afford the entire year but I am now thinking if I could stretch it a little to come back in the new year. However that would mean about 2/3 months surviving on just my partners salary plus SMP which is quite a significant drop.

Any one know? My partner earns about 17k and I am on £24k.

Hi Red On your salaries, even with getting SMP, I didn't you would be entitled to much, if anything at all. Though it does depend very much on where you live as in London you get a higher rate than anywhere else, I think. I would pop into your local council when you next have the chance and they might be able to calculate it for you.

I've just finished up with my 20 week scan. All went well and baby is doing good. They couldn't check everything today so I'm back next Friday for final checks.

We didn't want to know the sex and baby had legs firmly crossed so we didn't get any surprises (unlike with DS!)

That's a good tip peas. Just to add to it- I have a waterproof cotbed sheet that I keep between two normal sheets. So the top two layers can be whipped off and the baby straight back to bed if it's one of 'those' nights.

Esme that's a level of organisation I aspire too but have never reached - very impressed!

Hi Red, I don't think based on your salaries you'll be entitled to anything tbh.

Esme Peas excellent tips.... I really should write all this down!!

Red you could try the entitled to.org calculator to be sure. You probably wouldn't get anything while you are on mat leave but you might get tax credits the following tax year because they don't count (most of) maternity pay as income. Mad system.

badger I am feeling heaps better thank you. Are you on the fb group? I was talking a bit about it on there.

That natal hypnotherapy cd is the one I listened to with DS Cinnamon. It kept me really chilled out whilst I was in labour at home.

Where's the link to the edd spreadsheet again? It needs to be the first post!

Oh, I got it

The annoying thing with the calculator is that our LOs aren't due until the new tax year so you can't really estimate anything until April

Yeah, true

I'm planning on going to the Citizens Advice Bureau for advice re benefits. My financial situation will be dire. I'm single and am only due SMP so I'm assuming I'll be eligible for something but it's next to impossible even to get an idea of how much as the online calculators use your earnings in the last complete financial year to estimate.

Boo, had hoped my partners salary would be low enough that we could get something. I know we get child benefit so that's £80 a month but if I took extra time off that is us down nearly £1k a month which I don't know if it's doable... maybe we could for a month or two but I need to tell work when I will be back as they are having to get a replacement to cover me.

Can you change the end date of maternity leave whilst on maternity leave?!

Wow, its taken me all day to catch up again! Hello New people :) And yay and congrats to all the scans :)

I bought a glider chair with stool yesterday, looks lovely in our nursery, and the nursery is now pretty much finished! The only things left on my list to buy are

• A sling (think I might wait until baby is here and try a sling library, unless anyone has some positive reviews?)
• A black out blind, chose colour last night so need to measure up and buy now

-Toys and rattles, though I think family are planning to get the baby them.

We have literally everything else, including nappies and clothing of various sizes to last a week I couldn't cope without being this organised! Bought nappy rash cream and calpol last week , so I finally feel organised :)

Think we've finally decided on a girls name. We were sorted on a boys name, with middle name a while ago, just a girls middle name to chose now :)

Glad others have found the perfect prep machine useful, we will definitely be investing if I can't BF, mainly for ease/laziness

I'm really suffering with a bad back today, DH wanted me to bring in the tens machine, but I'm in a front of house (like reception/admin type role) since telling work about being pregnant, so it would be awkward having to keep unplugging myself!!

Had the 20 week scan....it's a girl

I didn't mind either way but it makes it more real to know there's a daughter on the way!

Thing is with benefits, they always use the previous year's income to calculate. So when we are on mat leave they will use this tax year's income to calculate any entitlement. Then when you are back at work and earning again they will look at the year you were on leave.

Congrats half!

Red you can but you usually have to give c. 8 weeks notice if you intend to return before the initially agreed date.

Are you eligible for Child Benefit I would have thought your salaries would be too much, but could be wrong.

Ooohh Bright can we see?? I'm excited to see how others nurserys look!

There is so much good advice on here I feel like I need to write it all down! So valuable for a first timer like myself. Thanks all of you.

nurse a few pages back you said you were tired? I was too. My bloods have always been borderline anaemic. Midwife suggested floradix. Once I started the tablets rather than the minging liquid (bleurgh!) I felt much more energetic. Headaches stopped and my hair stopped falling out too. Might be worth thinking about?

Child benefit threshold is one partner earning more than 50-60k (decreasing scale between those figures) so red you are defo eligible on those salaries. Hope you can get sorted to have the 6 months off. 4.5 months at full pay is a great mat pay package so your lucky in that respect, could you do shared parental leave with your partner so he could have some time off with baby and then losing the lower salary for a few months but still getting SMP, not ideal for you as appreciate you probably want to be at home with the baby but worth considering as it may be best for the baby to be at home with a parent for the first 6-9months. Have you got a childcare plan for going back to work?

Is it really that much peas DH and I earn £58k between us (£30 and £28) does that make us eligible too?

Yes, raspberry you will get it. DH and I earn over £60k between us and we get it. £82 every 4 weeks for one child. It's been super helpful.

Sounds very helpful Sonnet! What about Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit?

Pics should be attached Rasperry. I'm so pleased with it :)