Help with benefits

[Rainbow28x]

I've never applied for benefits before, so I have no idea how it works. Advice please!

I'm currently a stay at home mum to a baby who's a few months old and also a 2 year old. My partner works full time and we're stuck on a variable rate mortgage due to me not in work which just keeps rising. I'm currently receiving maternity allowance, but it's due to end in less that a couple of months and when it ends my partner's wage doesn't even cover all of our bills! We've already cancelled all of our unnecessary direct debits and there's no other way we can cut back apart from the food shop possibly.

My question is how does universal credit work? Do I have to wait a month after my maternity allowance ends before applying as I'm guessing they take maternity allowance into account? I did a calculator for benefits and we won't get anywhere near the maternity allowance so I'm worrying about how we are going to cope ☹️ Any advice will be much appreciated, thank you so much!

You could start the application today. It’ll take 5 weeks to get assessed whereas if you wait until you’ve finished maternity then you’ll have 5 weeks with no cash.

you might get awarded 0, but you need six months of 0 before your claim is closed - so it really doesn’t hurt to get the ball rolling whilst you figure it all out.

Yes, they will take MA into account. But obviously when MA stops your UC will go up.

Fairly accurate UC calculator:

benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/

You maybe wouldn't be eligible for any Uc until Maternity allowance stops as it is deducted from UC pound for pound. There is no specific help with mortgage payments currently on UC but you do get a higher work allowance ( the amount of wages they disregard before deductions for wages takes place) when you have a mortgage. It looks like in the latest mini budget this week that they are going to start offering help with mortgage interest after 3 months of claiming UC and now offering it to working people also but this help is given like a loan and has to be ultimately paid back.