What are working parents entitled to?

[G1994]

Hi all

What help are working parents entitled to? I’ve had a quick look online and most of what I have seen is for people who claim benefits?

Both me and my partner work but we don’t earn mega bucks (unfortunately) so I’m just wondering what help is out there, whether that be financial or even a free pack of nappies. We both earn an average wage and we do not claim any benefits.

If there is anything, how do I apply for it?

Thanks!

When the baby is born you can get child benefit if you earn under 50k (individually)
When the baby goes to childcare you can pay using tax free childcare, if you earn under 100k

Child Benefit if you earn below £50.000.

Also came to say about tax free childcare. Easy to apply for on government website as long as you meet the criteria (both working at least the minimum number of hours per week, max income etc) and easy to use to pay childcare fees.

You can still claim universal credit if you both work. DH works full time and I work part time and we still claim universal credit. You can see if you can claim anything by looking on entitled to website.

Once child is registered you can claim child benefit

Sign up to baby clubs Emma’s Diary, boots baby club etc for freebies

Child benefit - if you earn below level
Tax free childcare

That's it

There isn't anything else

My mother is still bemused that I didn't get free milk formula stamps with my children 😂

I work full time and get child benefit and universal credit. I had been getting child tax credits and was told to switch and apply to UC. I didn’t think I’d get anything but I did.

if one parent earns 50k and the other 30k do you qualify for this child benefit? When do you not qualify for it?

Would also like to know the same as @StartedWithACrisp I earn close to 60k, my partner is around 24k.

I’m in Scotland if that makes a difference. Neither of us are on benefits so we’re not entitled to the sure start grant that is offered here and it doesn’t appear that we can get anything else because of my salary. I’ll be going back 4 days a week so that will obviously drop.

Also I guess while on mat leave and only earning the statutory minimum, anyone would be entitled to child benefit for that first year?

The minute one of you earns over £50k you start seeing a tapered reduction in allowance (10% per £1k over £50k) so once one of you is at £60k you don’t get anything.

the system is extremely flawed, because a family with 2 parents earning £45k is worse off than one with a single parent earning £60k - despite the household income being significantly lower.

Without knowing what you earn it's difficult to say, but you should check if your entitled to universal credit. You don't need to be unemployed, and the childcare element can be paid up to a relatively high household income.

Child benefit if you both earn under 50k

Tax free childcare (20% off) if not getting uc childcare element.

Free childcare hours from 2/3, possibly reduced to 9 month if the gov don't backtrack.

Emma's diary- sign up for free nappy samples & coupons

@glasspaw but surely in a family with both earning 45k they can both claim for something? In our case that family would actually be better off because my partner can’t claim anything because of my salary :(

I’m not complaining about my salary at all because I’ve worked very hard to get to where I am and I’m proud of the work that I do. I just thought that with my partner not earning much more than minimum wage he would be able to claim something to help, at least while I’m on maternity but that doesn’t seem to be the case. As you say, a very flawed system.

Sadly not. My husband is under the threshold, I am over. So we can’t claim anything.

If one partner in a couple earns more than £60k a year, the full amount of the family's child benefit has to be paid back. It is still worth claiming if one is under £50k because you’ll build up national insurance contributions but you do have to pay the full amount back at the end of the tax year. We do that, put it all in premium bonds then do a tax self assessment at the end of the tax year to repay what we aren’t entitled to.

equally, if two parents both earn £45k then they can claim… but only once. Two child benefit payments cannot be made for the same child.

@SarahB88 one thought though. It’s based on your actual earnings for the year so if you’re under the threshold as a result of the decreased pay through maternity leave then you may be eligible in year 1 to keep the amount.

alternatively, have you considered shared parental leave? If you are concerned about finances when you drop to SMP then it might be better for you to return to work and for your partner to take the remainder of the leave? We did it last time and it worked really well.

@glasspaw it’s not great for folks like us who are just on that threshold is it!

I’m very fortunate that I get an enhanced maternity leave pay but I can still only afford to be off for 7 months. We are going to take advantage of shared parental leave so that my partner is off for longer after baby arrives and we can help out together at the start. Luckily my parents don’t live far and are going to take the baby when I go back to work. My partner works shifts too so he’ll have 4 days on/4 days off work where he can take her just himself so she won’t need a full 4 days during the week with my parents. I also work from home so will get to see her every lunch time :)

I suppose I was just hoping that there may be some assistance financially even if was just a small amount of tax relief. At least there’s tax free childcare that can be claimed through my work and she’ll get her free nursery hours in a few years.

Yeah it should absolutely be based on total household income. The same problem exists at the £100k threshold for govt funded childcare for 3 year olds (and 2 year olds from April). It creates this weird void where it’s financially better for a single parent to earn £99k than it is for them to earn £100-130k because of factoring in the cost of the 30 hours childcare. Yet you could have a family where both parents are on £95k being eligible for the funding.

@glasspaw couldn’t agree more with it being based on total income! I know quite a few people who are in that high earner category but under 100k so they get the free hours benefit. If you are on the cusp and just over 100k there’s ways around it of upping pension contributions if you can as that lowers your take home pay and you are then eligible for the hours if required.