MAT leave - entitled to anything?

[Sleepyquest]

I'm due to go on MAT leave soon and will be on SMP only. Normally I earn an ok salary (£33k), DH earns around 18k.

Would we be entitled to anything whilst I'm off? Tax credits etc? Or do they base it on last year's earnings? We once claimed tax credits when we were worse off and ended up owing it all back so I don't want to do that again! Thanks

You can't make a new claim for tax credits any more, it would be Universal credit and any entitlement to that would depend on rent/ earnings etc.

Don’t think you would be with those incomes . I’m on Matt leave at moment earning 35k , husband earns 25k and we get nothing it’s hard such a drop in income I’m getting stat maternity pay now

I'm currently on Maternity, I'm in a similar situation to you but under Universal Credit not entitled to anything - I would have been entitled to tax credits but unfortunately Universal Credit counts SMP as income unlike TC

Thanks everyone! I've been saving up so it won't be awful but SMP wouldn't even cover my monthly outgoings!!