Not sure what I should do

[PuffTheMagicDragon1]

Long story short I was made redundant while on maternity leave in October due to the company becoming insolvent. I'm currently waiting to receive my maternity pay from hmrc 4 months after baby was born. I get child benefit but my application for tax credits was denied due to my earnings last year. My partner is on a lowish wage so we are struggling to make ends meet. Eventually I will be looking for a new job but not for another couple of months as I want to spend s bit more time me with baby and childcare will be an issue. I have never been unemployed so this is a strange territory to me and do not know what I'm entitled to. I've been on the usual websites to check what I should be able to get but when I actually apply I'm denied, so confused.

Don't you only get tax credits when you are working? I'm hoping my comment might bump this up a bit so someone who knows a bit more can help. Feel for you OP - any idea when your maternity allowance will come through?

Is your partner already claiming working tax credits? There is a childcare element that will help towards the cost of childcare

Did you receive a redundancy payout? This can have an effect on claiming job seekers etc initially I think

Hi gotbills, I called them and they said they have everything they need but still have others that they need to process first so I'm looking at around 10 days. It's just so frustrating as I feel what was the point in working hard all my life, at 1 point working 2 jobs and commuting to university to then struggle to get the help when I need it.

Whatthefreak, I did get a redundancy payment but it was very low due to only working their full time for a short while the majority was part time along with another job. Thanks for the info on that though, I think I may just call a few places as filling in forms seems to get me know where.

Have you applied for child tax credits and been turned down? If so it may be because your 2016-2017 income was too high with you both working. if so you need to give them an estimate of your 2017-18 income and they should start paying you some tax credits. bear in mind though that if you start working part way through the 2017-18 tax year you will need to let them know straight away to avoid an overpayment. The threshold for one child without childcare is around £26k so if your joint income will exceed this you won't get anything.

Tax credits are not the same as maternity pay. Tax credits are paid depending on your earnings and number of children.