Money worries

[Emsyboo]

I am 24 weeks pregnant and just been looking up what I am entitled to which looks like absolutely nothing!
Me and my husband have our own business it is 18 months old and been a hard year so to make things easier we have been working from home taking less than the minimum wage which means we don't pay tax or NI on our PAYE. We get dividends to pay the mortgage and bills and our outgoings are over £3,000 before we pay for food.
Because I haven't paid NI for the past year I am not entitled to Statutory Maternity pay, we earn too much to be entitled to any benefits, surestart grants or anything except the £190 next week and the free dental and prescriptions.

I am so worried about what will happen when the baby is here we are already struggling and luckily are borrowing things like moses baskets, travel cots etc from friends I'm worried we won;t be able to cover the mortgage or will lose the business we have employed someone to help but it looks like if I have no help with money I will have to work as soon as I have the baby.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

If you haven't been paying NI but you are self employed then you must have had a small earnings certificate, this means you will be entitled to something like £30 a week. You need to google Maternity allowance.

I've gone down the Maternity Allowance route. I've had to do it because in one of my jobs I don't earn enough and I started the other job when I was a whole 1 week pregnant and therefore am not entitled to SMP from either job.
With MA you get £127 or 90% of your usual weekly income, whichever is lower. I'll get the £127 per week which works out ok for me as that's not much lower than my usual income.
I'm still not sure how working tax credits and child tax credits work. My partner and I have a similar problem to you as he owns his own business so they don't just take into account your income but also your assets. It's still worth looking into tax credits though.
You'll also get child benefit.
It's worth visiting a citizens advice bureau. IME going to the job centre doesn't always get you very far in terms of advice, and it's difficult to search on the internet unless you know exactly what you're looking for.

Thanks our accountant is pretty useless as well so hopefully citizens advice bureau and a decent accountant should help just so worried we won't be able to afford the house anymore :(