Sure Start Maternity Grant Declined

[TrueRomance28]

Help!

Back in January I was made redundant so I started signing on for Jobseekers Allowance. All was fine until I moved on 1st March from one county to another (in order to bring my living costs down). Somehow that move meant the job centres losing all my paperwork. I have since redone this paperwork another 2 times as they keep losing it but as they'd put all my payments on hold and I hadn't received anything since before 1st March I've been really struggling.

On 20th April I signed off in order for me to sign on to Maternity Allowance as I couldn't afford to keep having no income (I'm now 30 weeks & 5 days pregnant). The maternity allowance has been approved but I'm still chasing the backdated payments owed to me from the job centre for the period between 01/03 - 20/04.

I applied for a Sure Start Maternity Grant on 22nd April as this was the earliest date I could apply (I'm desperate to start buying baby things as we have a history of premature births in our family) but have been declined as they said I was not on benefits.

Do I have a right to appeal? I only signed off jobseekers as I was so desperate to get funds but no one at the job centre warned me that I would not be eligable for the grant if I was on Maternity Allowance.

Can anyone give me any advice??

If I'm right you aren't on the benefits you need to be to get the mat grant, so don't think there is much you can do

Yeah I think thats what they're saying. Its really frustrating as I only changed to mat allowance as jobseekers were taking so long to sort out my money and the lady at job centre suggested I make the change. I think if I'd stayed on jobseekers until 22nd April I would have got it :(

What is your family income? Once the child is born, if you have a low income you would be entitled based on your Tax credits.

I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope on appealing.
I appealed before and was in no doubt eligible (was a student with income of £0 and thus got max tax credits which makes you eligible) but due to tax credits delays on processing I wasn't awarded sure start and also lost appeal. Basically sure start work v quickly and all other benefit systems v slowly and so the appeal goes through before anyone else has got their bum in motion and so you end up losing out.... I did try and follow up but they just didn't care an with a new baby it's hard to keep pushing :S

true would you qualify for Surestart but for the fact you were not on an eligible benefit at the time you made the claim? If so you have another small window of opportunity to claim within 3 MONTHS after the baby is born provided you receive Child Tax Credits at a rate that's higher than the family element or if you get the disability element of working tax credits. That means registering the birth, claiming child benefit and then ctc promptly after baby is born.
If you're not sure whether you receive ctc at the rate described above you can just phone HMRC and ask.
Good luck

I had to appeal for this grant myself as tax credits were dragging their feet. I did receive the grant in the end so definately appeal if you think you have a case.

I do have some info on appealing which helped- feel free to pm me if I can help

rain I'm not sure about your circumstances but in OP's case there's no point in appealing. It would just be a waste of time because she wasn't on a qualifying benefit when she applied. Much better to advise her to claim again when the baby is born.