worried about life on maternity leave....

[Sandra48]

i was just wondering if youre able to claim any benefits whilst on maternity leave? my partner earns around 23,000 a year and i wont be going back to work full time. we already pay for 2 of his kids from a previous relationship so money is going to be tight when i go down to £136 a week.
i know i can claim child benefits but is there anything else we would be entitled to? im not trying to be a benefit grabber - just want to get what im entitled to?

You might be entitled to tax credits. Try going on the entitled to or turn2us websites and putting in what your income will be.

ive tried doing that before and it comes up with nothing. am i putting in that im only earning £136 a week or what i was origianly earning?

TC are complicated as they go on last year's income. You might be better off posting in the Money topic as I am by no means an expert and would hate to give out the wrong advice!

Hi I'm currently on mat leave my dh earn about half what your dp does and we currently get 5.23 a week in TC try doing the benefit checker it will give you an idea of what you can get hth

With your partner earning 23k you probably won't get much if anything from tax credits plus they work it out on last years earnings from both of you but it might be worth ringing them to check

Our Surestart centre has a lady from the Jobcentre who comes in once a month to talk to people about what benefits they are entitled to. Ours helped me do a TC application based on current income when DH was made redundant when dd was 4 weeks old.

They work it out on last tax yr earnings however u can ring once applied n update with most current earnings n predicted for current tax yr I did this when on mat leave last time although limits were higher in 2010 this time we will be entitled to zilch.

The first £100 pw of maternity pay is discounted for tax credits. You need to fill in the form with last years income, add an extra sheet asking them to base it on this years estimate instead.