tax credits/child benefit on maternity leave

[cluelesspro]

I'm due to go on maternity leave later this year. I earn significantly more than my husband and i am lucky enough that i will recieve some maternity pay but nowhere near my full salary and not for long (less than 6 months). On maternity pay/SMP we will be below most of the thresholds but on my normal pay we are well above. Will they calculate our allowances based on my full pay even when i'm not getting it or will we be eligible for anything? I'm trying to work this out now because to get to my current salary i have had to pay out huge amounts in exams etc so havent been able to save in advance and want to work out how long i can afford to be off. Once i'm back to earning i think it would be fully justified that i got nothing (including child benefits which i may well not get under new rules) and i'm happy to pay lots of tax to support people that do need it but it seems a little unfair if when we need it for just a few months we wouldnt be eligible. any advice would be much appreciated!

They calculate it on last years earnings, it's always a year behind which is ridiculous because it doesn't help you when you need it! You can always phone HMRC and ask them though, when it comes to filling out the forms.

When I work full time I wouldn't be entitled to any tax credits, but when I started mat leave my income dropped massively. I rang tax credits and explained and they asked me to tell them how much I would be earning this year and based their award on this instead. As such I now get £176 a month. I got back to work next month and will phone them and let them know and I'll get nothing, but it's been handy!

If you can work out exactly how much you'll earn for the whole of this tax year, give them a call and ask them to use this figure.

Good luck!

thanks, thats really helpful, i'll give them a call!

I called tax credits this morning to see how my claim was getting on....... She asked me a few security questions which I answered and she said she couldn't Confirm my identity over the phone therefore if I Wang to know how my claim is getting on I need to go to my local tax office with 2 forms of id and they can tell me..... Has this happened to anyone before? X

I'm just reeling from the realisation that my income drops 75% when I hit SMP, will I be entitled to tax credits cos if not I'll have to go back to work after 18 weeks as we won't be able to afford the mortgage. Or is it easy to take a mortgage holiday, really want as long as poss off with my baby

lady it depends on your household income, for the full year. I wasn't eligible when they calculated it on last year's earnings but once I rang and told them my estimated income for this year (and DH's) I was eligible for some help. Re mortgage holiday it depends on the terms of your mortgage, we couldn't on the deal we have but I know many who can. We could have gone interest only to lower the payments but decided we would sooner struggle that basically have to add time onto the mortgage longer term!