Financially scared

[Lala1980]

Please say if this is the wrong thread to post on. DP has 4 kids. 3 live with mum 1 with us, contact agreement in place and DP pays his ex correctly.
DP is on a low wage and most of his money goes to his ex. I am on a good wage so pay for us Inc. resident DSS which is fine. I changed jobs recently and have just found out unexpectedly I am pregnant so I will only be entitled to SMA not SMP.
Now terrified how we will make ends meet as I am the breadwinner. But ideally I would love some time with my baby before being forced back to work for financial reasons then would come the scary question of financing childcare...
NB DSS is 15 so we don't have childcare costs for him.
Any suggestions?

Your dp's maintainence payments will go slightly when you have another child, but not a lot.
You will get child benefit of £14 ( I think) a week for the second child in your household.
If your household income is less than £32k then you would be entiltled to some child tax credits. However they don't account for the fact that your dp is paying out maintainence, that is not taken into consideration.
The £32k is the threshold for 2 kids and no childcare costs. When yo go back to work you may get more help for childcare costs.

Also I think if you apply for child tax credits then you can discount some off the sma when you put income figures in.
If you make a claim for tax credits then they will initially base it on your joint income for last year and make give you an award of nil. You would then have to ring them with an estimate of your new lower income to be able to get awarded any tax credits.