Maternity leave

[Lizzy86]

This will be my first pregnancy so I'm completely unsure where we stand. I know that when I leave my full time job and go on maternity I'll only be entitled to stat maternity pay. My parter earns a low wage around £16k and I don't know how I'm going to cope with the bills and rent alone. I'll only be getting £145ish a week. What other help can I get? I've looked into tax credit etc but it goes off what we both earnt last year so it says I'm not entitled. But why when I can't cope now, I go on maternity in February and need some reassurance.

How has everyone else coped? I wanted to spend a full year with my baby but looks like I won't be able to afford it I'll probably have to go back within 7 months which breaks my heart

I don't have much advice except to contact the !money advisory service or go to the cab.

bumping for more help

This is the same with me and my other half our combined wage means that we are not entitled to anything apart from the weekly child tax which is £20 a week. I am currently maternity leave with our nearly 8 week old lb and not going back until may. Do your work do childcare vouchers? Mine does, but will be sorting that out at a later date and will try applying for tax credit next yr as would have been earning a lot less than this yr, so will see what happens with that

One thing that we did was make sure that any direct debits/standing orders that we have were if where ever possible were changed from 3 monthly payment to monthly that way we know exactly how much would be going out. food bills have gone up, but that is down to formula feeding so look at the most expensive brand and work out from that how much you might need. we are on amptimal 1 litre bottles (is ready made) which are £3:49 and we go through about 5 a week so that might give you a rough idea in case you are not able to breast feed

we brought things like nappies tesco own brand(tesco love baby in yellow packets(seam to be on offer a lot) and cheeky botts in big boxes)are really good value as we use them , wipes, cotton wool etc when supermarkets have their baby events. Even though my little one is not even 3 months yet, we have already got clothes in the next 2 sizes up in 3-6 and a couple of bits in 6-9 as people have brought them for us so if people want to buy stuff, depending on what you have already, maybe ask for the next size up so that you have it ready.

Hope that helps you a bit

Our income is going to drop a lot when I'm on mat leave. So I've been careful what we've bought for the baby - lots of second hand bits from baby groups of facebook and one called varagesale.com. Clothes wise I've bought bundles of barely worn baby clothes for hardly any money. People are quite keen to get rid of baby bits once they've finished with them. There are some things, like mattresses which you are advised to get new though. Maybe check out your local NCT branch? ours is having a nearly new sale soon, which is supposed to be good. I've cut our food bills down by planning meals for the week, which means I don't end up buying so much random stuff at the supermarket.

You WILL be entitled to tax credits . here's how it works: They normally take last years income and when you apply you'll have to put these figures on the form, they will then write to tell you your not eligible. You then call up and tell them your current years predicted income figures. They then recalculate the figure based on current years income plus 2500 (they discount the first 2,500 of any income drop), and will post out a new award notice telling you how much your eligible for. Its ridiculously complicated and confuses most people. Also when your income rises again the following year (if you go back to work) they don't count the first 5,000 income increase (so say you earn an extra 7,000 by being back at work, they'll only count 2,000 of that increase on what you earnt last year).

Oh and to get an idea if what tax credits you'll get put in your predicted income for the year plus 2500.

Also its worth you looking at council tax benefit and possibly even housing benefit - these calculations are based on what you earn, how much you have to pay in rent & council tax and compared to the figure the government says you need to survive on. The rules have changed though and lots of local authorities have reduced eligibility but still worth looking at it.

Thankyou all so much.

That's very useful info. It's difficult enjoying pregnancy when all you can think about is finances. Does anyone have any useful telephone numbers?