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Suggestions for unemployed and pregnant.

11 replies

HelloPanda12 · 09/01/2022 21:24

I feel as though anyone I’ve confided in about this has judged me massively and I’m starting to panic, please be kind. I apologies for how long this is but would greatly appreciate anyone’s time.

So I’m currently 29 weeks pregnant today. I live with my Fiancé in my FILs apartment that he owns and has been renting to us for 14 months now at a very manageable cost. Fiancé and I haven’t always been in the best of financial situations such as having savings and so on, but we were always comfortable and had no issues, we were at the time of getting pregnant in a perfectly manageable living and financial position to have a baby. My fiancé works for the NHS and is a Band 5 on rather good money, whereas I worked for Admiral at the start of 2021 but had left for a better paying job elsewhere. I got pregnant in July and was let go from the job in September, I do believe this was down to me being pregnant although I hadn’t yet told anyone in work other than one lady from the office who I shared work with I did hear two colleagues whispering about me being pregnant in the break room and can only assume that this had gone back to the director of the company who did start to treat me differently and gave some odd reasons for letting me go. I was going to appeal the decision but didn’t really have anything to go on as I hadn’t directly told the company I was pregnant.

Anyway I didn’t really panic too much when I lost this job as I’ve never struggled to find work, but unfortunately it was incredibly difficult. I had multiple interviews for jobs within the NHS as working in the same hospital as my fiancé would have been rather convenient. I was told after a couple of them that I did a perfect interview and to expect good news only to be turned down once they had discovered that I was the pregnant fiancé of one of their colleagues. I gave up on this and applied for everything I would be capable of doing, even a temporary job in a laundromat but I had to tell them I was pregnant after being asked if I had any issue carrying heavy industrial sized boxes of detergent. They instantly told me I wouldn’t be suitable for the job. It got to the point where I was going to job interviews whilst quite visibly being pregnant and could sense that they were rushing through and skipping questions on their sheets as they had no interest in employing someone who was pregnant. My fiancé and I had a sit down and he told me not to panic and that if I couldn’t find anything he would make sure we will manage. He got a delivery job with Amazon Flex that he does on the weekends and in spare time (I would do this but I don’t drive) but even with that we’re not in a great position at the moment. I have a phone contract and a relatively hefty credit card to pay and I did pay for the electric and broadband out of my wage (we have one of those top up electric things with a key, forget what they’re called) whilst my partner paid for everything else including rent out of his. What we had left was for food shops and any other bits we may need through the month. My partner doesn’t like to show worry, especially around me, but I can tell he’s struggling with this and I’m so behind on credit card payments that I’m afraid that I’m going to get into trouble. He can’t afford to pay the payments on my credit card on top of everything and I honestly don’t want him to have to but I’m now at a point where it’s virtually impossible to find work and I have absolutely no income.

What has now made this worse is his father spoke to him last week whilst our car was getting new tyres at his garage and told him that us living here is costing him a fortune and that he planned to sell the place before we moved in Confused. He said the reason we’re costing him so much is because he’s still having to pay the service fee for the building. Now I totally understand his concerns with this but 1) we didn’t know there was a service fee for this building 2) why hasn’t he asked us to pay for it 3) he has owned this apartment since around 2013 and had only lived in it a very short time before meeting his current wife and moving in with her, he has told my fiancé numerous times he never plans on selling it as it would be his fall back if he and his wife split up and has had other people living here. I know this is his property but he’s aware I’m no longer working and my fiancé has told him we’re not in a great place financially right now yet he’s picked now to say all of this which has made me feel insanely stressed and guilty. Also just to add, he’s had to pay the service fee since 2013 when he bought it whether he was living here or not, I don’t understand why it’s now all of a sudden a big issue, enough of one to grill us with at a time like this.

I’m at a point now where all I’ve done is sit at home, panic, cry and wonder how we’re going to manage this. We have all of the baby things we need so I’m not worried about whatever the baby needs but with no income for myself my credit score is going down quite rapidly due to missed payments and we’re going to struggle to be able to move out of here at any point over this coming year but I now feel as though we’ve been hinted to pack up and leave now. There really hasn’t been a lot of support from his family during this pregnancy as all they have cared about is my fiancé fixing his relationship with his brother that he has not spoken to in well over a year and has no interest in speaking to after his disgusting outburst at us and accusations made against me which my partner and I have proof were not true, but everyone has sided with BIL because he had precious first grandson that same year and nobody wanted to upset him. Unfortunately BIL is favourited hugely, had his car bought for him, house deposit given to him and debts paid off for him yet he’s the most ungrateful person you will ever meet and speaks to everybody like shit. My fiancé has had to work his ass off for everything and has had nothing handed to him and we’re burdening his father by living in his flat and paying him rent Confused

This has trailed off a bit and thank you if you’ve made it this far. I just want to know if anyone has any genuine advice or know of anything that could help us in our current financial situation?

OP posts:
Danikm151 · 09/01/2022 21:38

Have you looked into claiming benefits for yourself? I think contribution based jsa may be applicable depending on how far gone you are.
Get in contact with stepchange for some debt advice for your credit card.
Do you know if you can get maternity allowance?

HelloPanda12 · 09/01/2022 22:43

I’m not sure what type of benefits I could possibly be eligible for aside from child benefit when baby is born but of course that will go towards him and only him. I know I don’t qualify for job seekers allowance as I’m now not actively looking for work because of how far along I am. I’m unsure about maternity pay, I think that can only be claimed through the government if I have a job that I don’t qualify for maternity pay through due to not being employed by the company long enough. I will look into your suggestions though, thank you so much for taking the time to suggest these options to me.

OP posts:
Pepperama · 09/01/2022 23:05

You need to get yourself to Citizen’s Advice asap, in case there’s things you’re eligible for. Can you do some paid market research or surveys? Not great money but may also help a bit?

BMWqueen · 09/01/2022 23:13

Claim UC - I will be entitled to benefit x

BMWqueen · 09/01/2022 23:13

u* sorry not I

Willome · 09/01/2022 23:30

You might qualify for maternity allowance now.

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance

Forget your BIL and focus on how you're going to live going forward. Start making a plan of how it's going to work. There will be a way, you just have to find it.
I used to do care work when I had babies. 12 hour shifts when my dp didn't work, so no childcare to pay.

This thread might be useful in the meantime; it has some good tips for earning money if you can't do a conventional job.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/4443773-Earn-10-A-Day-Jumping-Into-January-2022

M0nster3Munster · 10/01/2022 11:50

You should be able to claim contributions based job seekers allowance via universal credit.

Apply on line www.gov.uk

It is not back dated, so apply today

LakieLady · 10/01/2022 12:43

You should be able to get mat allowance because you've been working and paying NI. You can print the form here

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/how-to-claim.

Depending on how rents are in your area, you may be entitled to some help towards that from Universal Credit. However, this might only be possible if you have a formal tenancy agreement, you will need to prove that it's a genuine business arrangement.

If you go to

www.entitledto.co.uk/benefits-calculator/Intro/Home?cid=8e288e8c-8d2e-49e4-bb59-ece09e68eb3c

it will tell you how much you can get. You'll need your payslips, because part of your MA will be based on your earnings.

You can also add the baby to the info and find out how much you may get once they are born.

Concentrate on the money for now, and worry about finding somewhere else to live once you've got an income. Your FIL couldn't get you out in less than a few months even if he wanted to. He's mean to add to your anxiety when you're pregnant though.

LakieLady · 10/01/2022 12:44

@M0nster3Munster

You should be able to claim contributions based job seekers allowance via universal credit.

Apply on line www.gov.uk

It is not back dated, so apply today

I don't think so, OP isn't looking for work.
Franc1 · 01/09/2025 16:35

Hi, I am in a similar situation as yours and I would really appreciate if you could share how you sorted your situation out back then. Any advice is welcome... Thank you so much

Superscientist · 02/09/2025 21:34

Franc1 · 01/09/2025 16:35

Hi, I am in a similar situation as yours and I would really appreciate if you could share how you sorted your situation out back then. Any advice is welcome... Thank you so much

I'm unemployed and pregnant. I've claimed maternity allowance as soon as I was able. I think I could start the claim at 25 weeks with first payment around 28 weeks.
My partner and I have some savings so we couldn't claim anything else.
The what I'm entitled to calculator might be useful

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