Benefits and maternity

[ConfusedBlackCat]

Hi there,
I am 22 weeks pregnant and have been made redundant from my minimum wage job.
I will be receiving my maternity pay as I qualify in a lump sum and have been applying for jobs none stop but with no success.

I looked into claiming benefits meanwhile and I seen that you cannot claim if you have over £6000 in your account.. does that include maternity pay out?

I've never claimed and I'm so confused and stressed by the process.

Speak to CAB as may be a complex case. If you have a working partner then their earnings and savings would affect what you can claim unless you just claim Contributions based JSA but I would imagine that the smp would have some affect on that maybe. Savings would not affect New style JSA as it's a contributions based benefit. The 6k threshold only applies to universal credit. It really depends what your overall situation is?

As PP says its a full picture situation, household income/savings (if you have a partner), not just your situation.

Your maternity pay will be treated as income in the assessment period it is paid and treated as capital after that but you can still claim with £6000 in savings/bank account. Between £6-10,000 your award would be reduced, only over £16,000 would you not be able to claim at all.