Issues after birth of child, self-employment/benefits entitlement

[Lauslaw]

Hello all, posting on behalf of a colleague. So the issue is that my work friend I due to go off on maternity leave in a few weeks and is very worried as her finances are all up in the air, she works full time on a reasonable salary but is planning on taking the full £52 weeks leave, her partner on the other had got himself in a mess a few years ago, has piles of debt, is 'officially' self employed but has not filed a tax return or paid tax for years she obviously want to do the right thing and declare that they are living together and as the partner does not earn very much though being 'self employed' she is worried that they will have to claim some benefits when she is on maternity leave and does not know how to deal with the 'off-grid' partner! Any advice would be appreciated

He needs to get his arse in gear frankly.

What is her maternity deal with her employer, over and above stat min?

Yes that is my opinion as well! No extra with maternity leave :( simply the standard 90% for 6 weeks followed by £140? (is that standard??) for the remaining leave, so not very much money at all! She's fretting as he can't show proof of patents earnings to claim benefits as does not want to accidentally defraud DWP

*partners

I would get her to seek some advice from Citizens Advise Bureau as she's in a tricky situation. If she wants to honestly claim benefits then he needs to come clean about his employmentas any entitlement to benefits will depend on their joint household income. If their joint earnings are over £26k they won't be entitled to any tax credits. She can apply for child benefit when the baby is born. if she can't afford to take 52 weeks off work then quite simply she will have to return to work sooner. not everyone can afford the full year off as the last three months are totally unpaid. When she goes back to work the tax credit thresholds if she will be paying childcare are higher than £26k so she may get some help towards Nursery/ childminder costs as long as they both work 16+ hours a week.