Maternity pay UK

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Hello,

Myself and my partner have been trying for a baby but have put this on hold for a couple of months whilst I start my new job. The job I was in previously would have provided me with full pay for 6 months whilst on maternity leave, however, I really did not like the job so have left.
My new job can also provide me with 6 months full pay for maternity leave, however, I will have to work a minimum of 12 months to qualify for this.
I really don’t want to wait any longer as we already waited 2 years before trying to sort our house, etc. My worry is the struggle for money whilst on statutory maternity pay.

How do people afford to live on SMP?
We both earn a similar amount yearly but my partners wage will not cover our household bills alone. Please don’t comment saying to wait as I have literally waited years for this already and it may not happen straight away anyway. Any advice or extra income?

We both own our house and pay for everything ourselves, no benefits for anything.

I think if you aren’t entitled to anything it would be a case of either living off savings, selling anything you have to make cash or your partner increasing his earnings. You’ll get child benefit if he earns under 60k. Babies aren’t very expensive once you’ve done the initial outlay for crib/pram/car seat etc and you can get good prices going second hand. Clothes second hand are cheap on Vinted or hand me downs.

How would it work with the 12 months- couldn’t you wait and work there 4 months then by the time you go on maternity leave in would be 12 months.

SMP in the UK is woeful. When you asy you own your house, I assume you have a mortgage? It can help if you've overpaid to take a payment holiday. Once you aren't having to pay a mortgage for a couple of months, that can go into savings for mat leave. Also, don't forget you get 6 weeks at 90% pay, so it really depends how long you want to have off. A shorter mat leave than ideal would help with the expense.

Honestly the only way is to save up enough beforehand that you can cover the shortfall if your partner’s income isn’t enough to cover all of the bills.

We had savings specifically for mat leave with baby 1 & have done the same now for baby 2, and my husband’s wage more than covers our household expenses so although it means less holidays/savings/treats etc in those months we don’t have to massively worry which I appreciate is a privileged position to be in.

If you can’t save to cover the difference I’d honestly advise waiting, having a baby is such a stressful time as it is, the last thing you want during that time is to be worried about keeping a roof over your heads and food on the table.

Most places you have to have been there for 12 months by the qualifying week.

Do you have any savings?

One thing to check is when the 12 month period is. In my last job I qualified for the enhanced package at birth so it would have only been a 3ish month wait to TTC to qualify. If that's the case I'd wait but I agree having already waited I wouldn't want to wait more than another couple of months. You could half try? Come off contraception but go with your mood rather than targeting your fertile week. I've conceived 4 times just doing this with the quickest being a few weeks after my miscarriage and the longest 4 months. You might find that your body takes a few months to be ready by which point if the 12 months is to birth you'd qualify for the package

It's coming up 2 years since my partner and I started discussing number 2. In that time I've had an 8 months wait for change off medication that was unsafe to conceive on, had two miscarriages and on pregnancy 3. All of our forward planning was thrown out of the window when I was made redundant at 7 weeks pregnant in February. I had a few months of frantic job searching which got me to two final interviews but unfortunately no job I've accepted I'm on a career break until after baby is born. I will qualify for maternity allowance but not statutory maternity pay. We are in the fortunate position that we have savings and my partners wage covers our bills. The maternity allowance will give us a bit of a cushion and so far I haven't had to touch my redundancy. I'm looking at starting tutoring, I've got a relative as a guinea pig at the moment to see how I like it. We have given our cupboards a sort out and sold things on eBay that have been cluttering up our cupboards. With my daughter we only spent £1000 on things for her during the first year including pram, car seat and cloth nappies so it's absolutely possible to have babies cheaply! We still have most of her stuff so we won't need to buy ,ucj.

Don't wait. You don't know how long it'll take to get pregnant, you may qualify by the time you go on mat leave!

Babies cost money but they don’t have to cost the world. There is a HUGE market for second hand baby products. If you can’t afford the full 12 months then think about going back after 9 months when the SMP stops. If you are eligible for funded hours baby will get 30 hours (or 30 stretched hours if in through schools holidays) from then and that will help. You also have accrued AL to tack on and 10 KIT days you can use.
Otherwise the suggestions others have made about overpaying your mortgage now so you can take a payment holiday later (if your provider allows that), or just saving your butt off are all good ideas.
If it’s 12 months’ continuous employment then you are only talking 4 months to wait, but I wouldn’t wait any longer than that tbh. You don’t know how long it could take. And yes, SMP is crap but if you keep waiting for “the right time” it’ll never happen. Accept that the next 5 years or so are just going to be some of the most expensive years for you with nursery fees, maybe you working part time once child is here if you choose to and so forth. It’s the sacrifice we make to have a family, and personally I wouldn’t change it at all. My daughter and bump are my world.

To qualify for SMP you'd need to have worked there for 26 weeks by the time you are 25 weeks pregnant I.e. you cant be pregnant before you start the new job.

If you didn't qualify, you could apply for Maternity Allowance. It is the same weekly amount but without the 1st 6 weeks at 90% of salary

We saved for our 1st then took a mortgage holiday for the 2nd.

Our nursery fees from 1YO went from £900pm to £300pm then £1,200pm. The end is in sight next year when DS goes to school and a few months later we will get the 30 hours funded for DD.

In my experience the Maternity Pay bit is the easiest to plan for. It's the childcare afterwards that is relentless.