Friend having TWINS - financial help???

[HellyBelly]

Conflicting info re: grants etc. Anyone know if you get help when having twins and if so, what?

Thanks

As far as I know there is no extra help available financially.

Will be interested to see if anyone knows different!

dunno, but i have heaps of baby stuff to get rid of, no double prams tho. (moses basket, girls clothes etc)

may be entitled to this depending on income! If not entitled now then should be once babies are here and its PER CHILD!

If she had suspected she may have twins before her scan she could have taken out an Insurance Policy against it, that would be the only financial help I know of for mulitipul births.. sorry...

She's qualify for HomeStart help (a volunteer to give practical help) but not as far as I am aware financial with twins. Three or more, sometimes yes.

Yes! Contact her local FE college that does nursery nurse/childcare courses. The students all do placements which can be in nurseries or at home. I got a lovely girl who came to my house for five hours two days a week, totally free to help with dd. Fabulous. You can't leave her alone with the kids, but my student came with me on trips out (eg museums), looked after dd so I could have a bath, came to the hairdressers with me - fantastic. Made it so,so easy. Really sweet girl too.

Good idea aloha- my Sis did her nursery placement with a twin single mum, gien that Nix went on to run a very well known Nursery that lady got a lot of good help, and they're still mates now- 16 years later.

your friend should definately look into the maternity grant. We got this, £500 for each baby!
you got it (3yrs ago) if you claimed other benefits such as working families tax credit. We were not eligible until the dts were born, so we had to claim for that first, and then claim the grant. think it can be up to 3 months after baby/babies are born.

£500 per baby only if you qualify. otherwise you are on your own

as a mummy to twin boys(22 months) please be there for her i have never felt so lonely ever. People think they have the ight to stop you in the street with "awww twins" but run a mile if you ask for help

No grants afaik. Are these her first, hb?
jambutty- are things getting a bit easier now? Really hope so.

things are a little better thanx i have now went to work 5 evenings per week 5-10 but still very lonely during the day

Thanks for all your replies, I will print this off and send any links to my friends and she can see what she's entitled to.

Mothernature - no, she had a big shock at the scan!! Thanks for mentioning it though as I'm very likely to have twins next so will take out a policy when I'm next pg

jambuttie - I will make sure I'm there for her. She's having such an exhausting pregnancy I keep telling her to have some time out and let me have her dd (2½) sometimes so she can rest. I'm a childminder and currently have a vacancy so I'm within my numbers to have her (unpaid of course ). Anyway, she probably won't take me up on the offer as she's got so much family around (luckily) and they help look after her dd.

Hope I have more friends around if I have twins next, no family close and it's lonely enough being a mum of just one, let alone 3 babies!

also have a look over at www.twinsclub.co.uk (I always seem to be recommending this !) - and ask on the forums there.

Having said that I don't think there is any specific help for twins - just the normal stuff you get if you have children and no money - so working family tax credit, child benefit, child tax credit (with that you defintely only get one allowance for a baby not 2 - lots of aggitation about that in the multiple births community last year).

If she needs a hand but doesn't want to impose on a friend, we had a family in HomeStart exactly like this, 2.5 year old Mum pg with twins, she got 4 hours help a week and the volly stayed on for a year after twins born.

link to check if in your area

Thanks for that!

Stressful

You can still claim materntity grant £500 if you have an older child already

But if never claimed you can still claim and get £1000

And you can even claim if you dont get any of the benefits it states as i dont and still managed to claim x

Tell her to join her local twins club for support. TAMBA for discounts and further support. Pampers send vouchers to multiple mum's for nappies Google it.

You sound like a lovely friend op.

Those twins will be almost 12 now! Zombie thread!!!

Hey! do you still have the baby items? If so how much? X