Working parents entitled to anything?

[LauraBrown1]

Hello, I don't know if this is the best topic to post this under but I couldn't find anything else.
Me and my partner are expecting our first in August, he works 40+ hours a week and I do 16. We get no benefits and pay full rent, bills etc.
We struggle with money I'm not going to lie.
I heard something about a sure start maternity grant online but I'm not sure if we'll be elegible for it. I know a few working friends that are still with their partners and they couldn't get it.
Can anyone help me out? It says you're elegible if you receive child tax credits but I have no idea about that either.
I'm currently OMW to work so tomorrow I'm going to ring up my midwife and ask when I have more time.
Just seems as if you're better off not working and getting money handed to you.. 🙄

You've got a bit of a cheek when you hardly have a full time job between you.

@huggybear got a bit of a cheek for what exactly?
We are working. Would it suit you more if we both quit our jobs then asked for help?

'Hardly have a full time job between you'

My partner works 40 hours a week. A full time job say example a 9-5 is 40 hours a week 😂 well you just messed up there..

The last sentence in your OP.

You also said he gets paid £200 a week.

Your partner cannot be working 40 hours a week if his income is what you say it is. If he is working for 40 hours a week and bringing home less than £300 then report his employers, they are illegally underpaying him.

@huggybear already been through this before, kinda sick of explaining myself now...

This is from friends advice, a family where neither work and have rent paid for ETC

I also said around £200 as his hours can change and vary. On a decent week it can be £260, sometimes less depending on hours

Your partner must be paid less than minimum wage to come out with £200 after a 40 hour week, standard deductions shouldn't leave him so little.

Anyway, your best bet is to make an appointment with cab and take some example payslips. They can work everything out for you. I'd work as many hours now as you both can to build up some savings.

Good luck with baby

@frogsbreath yeah I'm going to try my best and sort it all tomorrow. Like I said August is a far while yet but I'll feel more secure getting things into place earlier on x

On a decent week it can be £260

Which would be below NMW for a 40 hour week unless he is making unrealistically large pension contributions. So report his employers, they are breaking the law.

Or is he very young and not entitled to the full NMW? Because if so that will also affect your benefits entitlement as a couple (I.e. below a certain age, you get less).

He's 24. I'm going to talk this through with him tonight once he's home. We have a joint bank account and I think he must be putting money straight into savings from being paid that's why it's looking so little

okay my correction! I've just realised he has in fact been putting money into the savings once he gets paid. Phew! It wasn't making much sense to me before...

Well you can use the savings to pay for the baby.

The national minimum wage for a 24 year old is £7.38 an hour. 7.38 x 40 is £295. Even taking off tax, he should be getting around £270 a week.

He's being underpaid.

Well, pay work back first!

Oops wrong thread

@TulipsInbloom1 pay work back for what?

@Antigonads well yeah I mean that was the idea in the first place of putting money in the saving account.. I highly doubt £350 is going to go very far but we're trying

@TulipsInbloom1 I wondered.. it's okay 😂

I also said around £200 as his hours can change and vary.

How many hours a week is he contracted for?

He no longer has contracted hours as it's the second time he's went back to this job , first time he was contracted 40, this time it's what he's giving. It can change. Every weekend without fail is 11-10 and through the week he can get 3-10 hours and such

I mean like working from 11am-10pm not like 11 hours that weekend

I think your partner will need to look for more hours too, he can't be full time as that's below minimum wage for even an 18 year old. It's tight if you have kids young, it was for us but the advantage is we are barely middle aged and they are virtually left home!

There's grants for very low incomes, register on the government gateway if you are in a uc area and put in your numbers, you may qualify once the baby is born if your total gross income is under about £20k

Don't ask your midwife about what you're eligible for. They won't have a clue and they are not there to give that sort of advice. Go to citizens advice.

Depending on when you're due you may not be eligible for SMP as I notice you said you only started your job in November. You may be eligible for maternity allowance though. You also must earn on average £116 a week or more to qualify for SMP.

When I had my first child at 19 me and my now DH worked full time, and ran our own house I was a little bit similar to you in the sense I didn't know what I would get benefit wise.

We did get some child tax credit? Which I'm sure has now changed to universal credit? And of course we got child benefit.

It might not seem like you're eligible for much if anything now, although we did seem to earn a little more than yourselves so I assume you should. However, once you have the baby you should fall into the criteria for other benefit and support eg housing benefit. If you earn under the threshold and are in receipt of the child tax credits it may also make you eligible for that? However, this was a while ago and it's all changed since and I've no idea how the system works now.

Also, there is nothing worse than a mother feeling like "she gets it all on a plate" where she is simply just looking for some financial help, as are yourselves. Maybe in reality some people do abuse the system but I can hand on heart say I'm a hell of a lot better off earning my own money than "claiming benefits" that said, I used it when I needed it.

The same for the sure start maternity grant, it's there to support mums that are financially struggling to help with one of costs for things they might need. A family who are working, earning there own money do not need to take a grant intended to help the struggling, surely that's just a bit greedy?

Good luck op, I'm sure you'll have a better idea now using all of those calculators!

On a slightly different subject , i think I just saw that you have £350 savings ?
£350 can get you a lot - I bought my icandy pushchair which was in great condition just a few models behind for £50 on Facebook , lots of lovely clothes from nearly new sales - all barely worn .
My cot was second hand , my PIL very kindly bought a new mattress for it , my bath support was second hand and £5 ( angel care so you can clean it really well ) , paid £35 for a barely used breast pump and a second hand steriliser from a friend for £10 .

Aslong as your not snobby about second hand you can really buy everything you need !