Maternity Pay - HELP

[Wingingit2020]

Sorry this is quite a long post however i'm very new to this and I'll be totally honest, I have no idea how maternity pay works etc

Before the life of TTC and thinking everything baby it was something that never crossed my mind and I assumed you'd have a baby, take a year off, your company pays you and that's it but I've realised how naive I was!

My salary is £33,000 and my company offers;

First 10 weeks @ 100% salary
8 weeks @ 50% salary + SMP
10 weeks @ 25% + SMP

1. How much is SMP?
2. What happens for the remainder 24 weeks after my company stops paying, is this standard SMP?
3. Do you get any further support?

My outgoings each month are £1080 and my husband the same, i'm already really stressed wondering how i'm actually supposed to survive. My husband will of course help out but we are by no means well-off or anywhere near that - and there will be an extra little person to provide for too

1. SMP is £151.20 per week
2. SMP would be paid until week 39. The remaining weeks would be unpaid
3. depends on family income

How much does your dh earn?. Of course he should help out - its his child too!!

As poster above said. Not manybcompanies pay anything for the final 3 months.

You can add annual leave onto the start and end to imcrease time with pay.

I took 9 months maternity with 3 weeks annual leave before and 4 weeks annual leave afterwards.

That’s pretty generous of your employer.

I think you’ll also find that you don’t spend very much on maternity leave. Eg no commuting costs, no work lunches etc A baby is very cheap too especially if you breastfeed.

It also sounds like you haven’t had a shared budget oath your husband? Probably a good time to start having a family budget.

I’d say it’s likely to be more expensive when you’re back at work and need childcare than the reduced income on mat leave.

Firstly, your dh doesn't "help out", you need to make sure that either your dc is a shared cost so he funds half of that (including the money you lose being on mat leave), or you pool your income and costs (amounts to much the same for most people I guess).

Secondly, assuming you're not currently 8 months pregnant, you have time to cushion the blow. Start putting away as much as you can (both of you - this is a joint cost!) to give you a fund to draw from during mat leave. This could either be to extend the period you're able to take, or to give you more per month.

Thirdly, as a pp said, this bit may actually be the cheap bit of child rearing. Babies don't need much but childcare costs, if you'll have them and/or going part time is the real killer financially so have a look at that too.

In terms of other sources of income, you'll get child benefit if neither of you earn over £50k. You may qualify for Universal Credit if you're on a very low income, but the cut offs for the first child really are a low income.

This explains OP: www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave

Why do you talk about your outgoings as separate to your husband? Agree with a PP you need to have a discussion about how you pool your finances because you shouldn’t be at a disadvantage or feeling like you have no money when you’re on maternity leave.
You should then definitely start putting money away now.

Hi
My mat leave was 6 weeks 90% then smp it was tight but somehow managed it!
I wad not entitled to any additional support other than child benefit and at the time my income was £18k! This was only 5 years ago.
If you dont already share the household finances in one pot its an idea to do this atleast while your on reduced income so you have access to the money

But your outgoings do get reduced no commute costs eating at home etc

How far along are you? Congratulations