Afford a baby

[Loulou2208]

Hi,

I currently work full time and so does my partner. We are looking to start a family but wondering what help we could get. A bit worried about the cost of it all. I currently earn £2200 after tax and my partner earns 16000 after tax. I plan to go back to work two days a week and we would have the cost of childcare on that two days as well. My partner currently has 4 kids with his ex which he pays 400 a month for. After bills and mortgage to pay we don’t have a lot of disposable income. Is there any benefits or help we can get? We live in Scotland

Thanjf

www.mygov.scot/benefits/

Have you looked here?

Hi there;

I'm not sure if the rules in Scotland differ but there's a tax credit calculator on the HMRC website that'll give you an idea or you can go to citizens advice bureau here (not sure if you have them)

I thought we'd get some help when I was on maternity leave as my company only pay the absolute basic statutory maternity pay but when I called them they told me it was assessed "on the previous tax year" when I was working full time.

When I went back to work and April came round they said we'd only get £16 every 4 weeks, based on my partner getting around £1700-1800 per month and me getting about £550/600 and now even tho I work part-time we don't get anything.

The rich are fine, those poor people who only get minimum wage get the tax credits (and rightly so) and if you fall into the "middle" category you often loose out. They may take into account your partner has maintenance to pay tho worth looking into

Hi LouLou;

I meant to add that if you waited for "the right time" there would never be one.

My dd is 2 now, I've just been made redundant (working my notice) and sometimes life just throws these challenges at you!!!

Top tips I've learnt are:-

Not too go mad buying the "must have" items (I wasted loads of money on stuff I didn't really need!!)

To accept offers from friends of hand me downs of toys/equipment/ clothing

To sell things and buy off selling sites as a first point of call

To shop around a bit - I never used to do that, I saw something and bought it

I also tried to save as much as we could before going on maternity leave and that helped as my maternity pay was only the basic!

Good luck ttc xx