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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Teenage pregnancy, need advice

48 replies

Jonesie72 · 26/10/2018 19:47

Hi, my 17 year daughter very unexpectedly discovered she was 6 months pregnant a few weeks ago. To say a shock was an understatement! To make matters worse it would seem that because of her age she is not able to claim any benefit at all and because of that she can't claim the maternity grant or healthy start vouchers. She will be staying with us because she is too young to be on her own. Does anyone else have experience of this or can give advice please. I feel that I have exhausted every avenue 😐

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Villanelle123 · 26/10/2018 23:28

Just wanted to say well done on supporting your daughter through this.

My parents threw me out pregnant at 18 and I’ve never quite gotten over it. Teenage motherhood is an extremely lonely journey.

Good luck to your daughter. With your support she will be great :)

grace7 · 26/10/2018 23:28

If you look on the GOV site about benefits and support she can get, that might be of help! It's really informative and clear. Best of luck!

Original poster

Jonesie72 · 27/10/2018 08:41

@Papergirl1968 did your dd get the maternity grant? We've been turned down for it as dd not currently in receipt of benefits. From the conversation at the job centre not looking likely and when we submitted the claim we got a response saying one or more of your answers indicates that she won't be entitled to it. Just goes round and round and round and I'm absolutely sick of it. The dad doesn't want to know and won't tell his parents and we don't know the family. Woken up today feeling really pissed off!

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dementedpixie · 27/10/2018 08:56

Get the universal credit claim sorted first as it looks like she should be entitled to it. Once that's done she should then be entitled to the grant

dementedpixie · 27/10/2018 08:59

She won't qualify for Universal credit until she is 29 weeks pregnant but after that she should be able to get the other help too

Papergirl1968 · 27/10/2018 20:43

Not yet, Jonesie. we haven’t claimed yet as she’s not due till April, and I guess it will depend if she does get income support or universal credit.
It’s complicated as we do have another child in the family, dd2, who is 14. I get child tax credit, but not sure if I can claim the maternity grant or if it has to be dd1.
There’s also a possibility I might be appointed as the baby’s guardian if dd1 can’t take care of it.

saraO123 · 30/10/2018 10:12

Hi, this is my first time posting but just wanted to let you know we are in the same situation. My daughter is 17 and pregnant. We have recently applied for income support as she is over 29 weeks pregnant now and she has received her first payment. We have also applied for the Sure Start Maternity Grant upon the recommendation of the midwife. We had to send this off with a MATB1 which the midwife gave us. She has been getting the healthy start vouchers which are £3.10 per week but once baby is born this will be £6.20 per week I believe. This can be spent on fruit/veg/milk and formula milk. Hope you get things sorted. Best of luck.

Original poster

Jonesie72 · 30/10/2018 13:24

Do you mind me asking your situation? Is your daughter still in education, will she live with you? We are still waiting to hear if my daughter has been accepted to claim universal tax credit.

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Hidingtonothing · 30/10/2018 13:38

I obviously can’t say if DD will get UC (fingers crossed) but what I do know is that there have been lots of reports that Jobcentre staff don’t seem to have a clue how UC works so I just wanted to say don’t get disheartened by what they’ve said, there’s every chance they’re wrong. Everything else (mat grant etc) rests on the UC decision so once you have that you may find everything else falls into place. Wishing you and your family all the very best OP

Original poster

Jonesie72 · 30/10/2018 14:21

@Hidingtonothing thank you. It's so worrying. If no UC, there is nothing! Not quite sure how a 17 year is going to be able to bring up a child on £82.80 a month child benefit!! Hopefully they are wrong and we will get something. Am hearing quite a few people say they receive some money so fingers crossed 🤞🤞

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SpottingTheZebras · 30/10/2018 14:27

The dad doesn't want to know and won't tell his parents and we don't know the family.

How charming of him. He still has responsibilities. As soon as your grandchild is born and registered for Child Benefit, you can put in a CMS claim against him. Even if he is not working now, at some point there should be a time when he is righty contributing towards the upkeep of his child.

Thesnobbymiddleclassone · 30/10/2018 15:27

@Jonesie72 if your daughter wants to carry on with education, last year I graduated from uni after starting when my daughter was a year old and there are things you can claim. So it's doable.

dontalltalkatonce · 30/10/2018 15:30

Hope she can get some UC, but really think the father needs to be pursued here.

saraO123 · 31/10/2018 14:36

Jonesie72, my daughter is still living at home for the time being, not sure what the future plan is, her boyfriend is still around. She isn't in full time education, as baby due December we were advised to hold off for a year. We applied for income support as the area we live in hasn't transferred over to universal credit yet. It didn't take long for the application to go through, about 10 days. Since we have had confirmation that income support will be paid we have applied for the SSMG. When we applied for income support we had to do it over the phone, I'm not sure about universal credit. Have you tried Citizens Advice to see if they can help? Looking at the gov.uk website I can't see why she shouldn't be eligible for it?

saraO123 · 31/10/2018 14:41

Jonesie72, just a thought but are you still claiming child benefit for her? I had to cancel the child benefit when she finished school in order for her to apply for income support.

Original poster

Jonesie72 · 31/10/2018 15:02

Still claiming child benefit as she was going to continue at school for as long as possible til baby due in December. However, I am happy to stop claiming immediately and she can go back in Sept next year. Still waiting for utc people to get in touch 😐

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saraO123 · 31/10/2018 16:26

I know that if I had been receiving child benefit she wouldn't have been able to claim the income support but universal credit is completely new to me. What date is she due in December? We are 28th. Do you have family/friends to support you aswell as your daughter? Its just you saying you had woken un p@~&ed off, I can relate to that :)

Original poster

Jonesie72 · 31/10/2018 16:44

She is due boxing day! I think I'll try and contact them via phone to see what is happening. Causing extra stress for an already stressful situation!! She's got a lot of support, me, her dad, sister and my family. Think I've been in shock since we found out 6 weeks ago. Really not where I thought we would have found ourselves! And we thought Xmas would be boring this year 🤣🤣 do you and your dd have family support?

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saraO123 · 31/10/2018 18:35

Yes we do thankfully, I don’t think we’d have got through it without them tbh. I have also found the midwives have been excellent. I know exactly how you feel, we’ve known a lot longer so I remember the shellshocked stage. It does get easier and you’ll have a Xmas to remember for sure. I would ring them direct for advice. She should definitely get the Healthy Start vouchers. I started stockpiling nappies/wipes quite early on too. I have found it helpful to know that we are not alone and that other people are in the same situation and have come out the other side. How does your dd feel about becoming a mum?

Original poster

Jonesie72 · 31/10/2018 19:08

She is getting quite excited, starting to get Braxton hicks quite badly now! Had a long conversation with utc this evening and it would seem that it is the school situation that is stopping the claim. That can be easily sorted. Is your dd getting excited? I've been buying nappies etc for a while now and we've got everything else. People have been very generous with clothes, blankets etc so we're sorted for the first 3 months. Whereabouts in the country are you? I've found it soooo helpful speaking to other parents in the same situation 👍 I've just found a young parents group that should be helpful for her.

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saraO123 · 01/11/2018 08:09

Glad it looks like you are getting somewhere with utc, please let us know how it goes. We are in Lincolnshire. I have found mumsnet very helpful, we don’t know any other parents who are in this situation so it does help to know you are not alone. My dd is excited but apprehensive aswell. Good luck with everything 🙂

Original poster

Jonesie72 · 01/11/2018 17:52

Slowly getting somewhere now. Utc have agreed it's because she's at school. School have offered to put her on maternity leave but I believe that will still class her as being in full time education so I've got to get that bit sorted. Utc say it's a complex situation but I can't believe that she's the only one in this situation! Funny, my husband is from Lincolnshire, Scunthorpe!

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anniehm · 01/11/2018 18:07

Hope you have sorted the benefits situation but we found (for different reasons) you cannot claim universal credit whilst child benefit is being claimed by someone else for you (in our case it was disability benefits rather than maternity) as soon as I wrote to the child benefit office and ended my claim they awarded benefits in her name.

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