Mortgage payment holiday - maternity leave

[HarrietB90]

I’m due in May and hoping to take the maximum maternity leave (just over 1 year) from work as I figure it’s time you don’t get back with your baby and its my first child!

I wondered if anyone had any recent experience of taking a payment holiday from their mortgage?

We are with Halifax and I’m thinking even if it’s just for 2/3 months at the end of the year when statutory maternity pay stops it could be a massive pressure off us financially - we can get by but wanted to try and stay comfortablish in case we need to have work done to the car or the boiler breaks or something (which always happens when money is tight!!)

would love to hear if anyone has done similar?

We haven't done it before but also with Halifax. I did enquire once and there are certain criteria you have to meet to allow a payment holiday. I called them and they were through a few questions with me and we didn't qualify but they offered that guidance before applying for the payment holiday - defo worth giving them a call first. X

Ah ok that’s good to know!

I’m going to ring them as I’m worried we won’t meet the criteria but there’s not masses of information on their website to tell you and I’ve looked at Money Advice service and it seems like maternity leave is a pretty common reason for taking a short payment holiday. I suppose until you’ve applied you don’t know!!

Thanks for getting back to me though