How to survive Maternity

[MissM94]

How on earth do you survive on maternity pay? I earn more than double the amount you get on SMP.. how do you cope with the significant wage drop?! Luckily I've got savings and my partner works but he has his own outgoings. My outgoings and household bills are more than the monthly amount of SMP how do you then buy baby bits/shopping etc? What else are you entitled to if your partner works aswell? So lost and frankly scared shitless

Save, save, save, then set a budget.

Your partner should be paying half for your child’s expenses.

Your contribution to bills should reflect your SMP not what your salary was.

When are you due?
We saved like mad for 2 years before we started TTC. I’m afraid it’s about longer term planning but that doesn’t help if you are due soon.
Are you entitled to child maintenance or tax credits ? Also if you need childcare you can look into tax free childcare which will help a bit. Other than that, have a conversation with DH about how you will both contribute to expenses. It’s not just about your pay, it’s now about your household income

You and your partner should pool all your finances. You are a team if you’ve a child together. It is completely unacceptable that you’re stressing about being before short while on maternity leave. You both should be cutting back and saving as much as you can before the baby is born. Kids actually don’t need that much beyond a cot/basket to sleep, a buggy, a car seat if you have a car. Lots of bits can be picked up second hand. Childcare costs a lot so you both need a unified approach to finances before you start paying for childcare. Best of luck with your pregnancy

@Redcart21 I'm not due until May so got enough time to work with, just stressing haha
I don't know what else I'm entitled to, I don't know how it works when you both worked, I just assumed you got nothing but if you receive benefits already you're entitled to everything 🤷🏼‍♀️

For starters, either you have a household budget where you get equal amounts of discretionary spending money or your partner is covers at least half your lost earnings.

If you don’t have a shared household budget you also make sure partner is paying half of all baby expenses, including incidentals during the day. That is on top of paying you for half your lost earnings. Once you return to work you need to add in half of child care. Also doing half of drop offs and pickups and half of sicks days and appointments so that you aren’t the only one with an impacted career. If you go back on a reduced schedule to “save on childcare” then partner needs to continue to pay you for half your lost earnings.

You don’t get everything on benefits it’s bare minimum to get roof over a head and keep basic bills. You could well be entitled some help if your income is so low you can’t afford it alone.

Millions of people have claim not everyone is work shy scrounges plenty are in excatly same Positions as you and it helps when life takes a turn. Entitled to is a website where you can put in partners wage and your maternity pay and see if anything that can be given. You will also of course get child benefits unless one of you earns over £50k.

I had twins and planning went out the window

First six weeks smp is 90% of weekly earnings, based on an average at specific weeks of pg. If you can increase your hours during that period any extra will be included. Are you on nmw or part time if your income is only twice smp rate? You will qualify for child benefit, in full if both your or your partner's wage is less than 50k, partially if either between 50 and 60k, none if above. Try budgeting now based on your income during ml and see what you can save up,

@LIZS sorry I said it's more than half SMP, work 39 hours a week in a skilled job role, can work overtime which is on every other week which will up my average and able me to save even more but after the 6 weeks it's such a big drop it's crazy.. didn't realise it was so shit haha

[quote MissM94]@LIZS sorry I said it's more than half SMP, work 39 hours a week in a skilled job role, can work overtime which is on every other week which will up my average and able me to save even more but after the 6 weeks it's such a big drop it's crazy.. didn't realise it was so shit haha[/quote]
I think most people would earn (more than) double SMP. It's a big drop for everyone.

It's not meant as a replacement for your salary, it's not sustainable long term. It's just meant to support you as part of your wider financial planning.

It's really a case of saving what you can in the lead up to it, cutting spending whilst on leave, and taking the leave that you can afford.

As you are it due until May, you need to save what you can until then. And then it's a joint expense between you and your partner, not just you.

@MissM94 have you spoken to your HR? If you are in skilled work you might be eligible for enhanced maternity. I get full pay for 6 months as do most of my friends.

You need to reassess your contributions based on your earning as a couple. If he needs to contribute more, so be it.

Save as much as you possibly can. Reassess your contributions based on SMP ASAP and save anything extra that you earn that you won't be getting in a few months time.

I'd grind out the overtime too.

I earn 3x my SMP allowance and I'm covering the utilities and DP covers nursery for the toddler, which I'd normally pay.

My work provides more than the bare minimum government SMP plus I've been saving into a maternity pot to cover the difference when I do have to go down to just SMP at 6 months.

You can use a benefits calculator to work out what you can claim at different points in your maternity leave. If your partner lives with you then your income is treated all together and he will be expected to prioritise your rent/council tax etc and use whatever he has to help, but you may still get some universal credit. If he does not live with you then it is likely you will qualify for universal credit while you are off.

You need to start saving now. This is good for 2 reasons:

1. It'll give you a buffer when your pay drops
2. It'll give you practice at managing on less money.

You'll get child benefit (about £20 per week but unlikely to qualify for anything else if youre both working in over minimum wage jobs.

Honestly, unless you have free family childcare lined up then this is how it's going to be for the next few years. Childcare is expensive, not working is "expensive" ( in terms of lost income).

You will cut your cloth and manage like everyone does once the shock wears off!

So you might get child benefit if your partner earns less than 50K, you can also claim even if you get more than 50k as you won't on mat leave but you need to do this per tax year.

As for budgeting you adjust contribution to a percentage of money. You also both save to cover the shortfall the difference between the contribution you make on SMP and what is required.

You can also do 10 KIT days which are paid and you should get a bit of tax back for a few months depending on when you will be on mat leave and how long for.

Mostly you tighten your belts, as for affording baby stuff check out second hand you can get brilliant bundles of clothes especially up to 6 months is barely worn. Only thing which should not be second hand is mattresses and car seats for safety.

And I'm assuming that your partner will be pulling their weight financially - if you're thinking the coats are only yours to deal with then you've got trouble ahead.

You save and your partners share of outgoings increases.
I’m the higher earner in our relationship and we split bills proportionately to our incomes.
I’m currently on mat leave and saved £7k knowing I’d be getting very little for a few months.

If your income is low enough you will be eligible for universal credit. According to benefits calculators I should be eligible for another 600 a month on top of statutory mat pay to help pay my mortgage and bills, but I don't live with my kids' father. In the meantime as 1200 a month only covers basic outgoings not including food, I am attempting to save 1k per month in the run up to the birth. Once I go back to work I'll be paying 800 a month in childcare so need to get used to it.....

Save hard to cover the loss or go back to work earlier.

[quote MissM94]@Redcart21 I'm not due until May so got enough time to work with, just stressing haha
I don't know what else I'm entitled to, I don't know how it works when you both worked, I just assumed you got nothing but if you receive benefits already you're entitled to everything 🤷🏼‍♀️[/quote]
Why the snide comment about people who receive benefits? Maybe you should have checked out what SMP was if it's going to cause you so many issues?

When I've been on maternity leave we've just cutback and survived mostly on my DH's wage- are you saying that with you and your partner's wages/maternity pay combined you are going be short for bills etc? If that's the case unfortunately you'll have to go back to work earlier than planned although childcare costs might make it not worth it. Also we were quite lucky as we were one of the last of our friends/family to have kids so we got a lot of hand me downs, so had to buy minimal stuff. Hopefully you'll be given some baby items too to ease the financial worry.

@kirinm it's hardly snide comments by the OP many people have no idea benefits work or if they could claim and many people don't claim as a result especially when they are working. It's a minefield!

We had money in the joint savings account so my 1 year maternity leave was covered as the savings were used to top my reduced wage back up to my normal wage. My HR department gave me an idea of how much I would get each month beforehand which was incredibly helpful.

Any baby related items came out of the savings account too. Dh continued to pay into the savings account every month like before plus any extra from his personal money which we both had after bills etc to again fund any baby expenses.

I returned to work part time, all our money was re-jigged due to my new wage and the childcare that we had to fund. We planned for this. Originally as a theoretical thing then a reality once I was pregnant.