Maternity and entitlements

[Taylor19]

Hi, we are due to have a baby 13th October
I work in a school and my husband is self employed.
What would be the best time to start my maternity leave to get the longest period of time off and best financially?
Also, once the baby is born, are we only entitled to the standard child benefit most people get, the £20 a week one? I'm not sure as my husband is self employed if there was any other support we would get as I'm hoping to go back part time to work but know it will be a bit of a struggle financially.

Thanks so much for your help!

Look into shared parental leave- there are a few blogs online for how it can work for teachers and you can basically get paid for some of the holidays whilst on maternity. I’m assuming the same would work for a teaching assistant if this is your role.

Look on the government site to see what you might be entitled too. If you go back part time under a certain amount of hours, you might be entitled to something.

The latest you can start your maternity leave is the day after your baby is born and it will be brought forward if the baby is born early. You do accrue holiday while on maternity so you may be able to add this time onto the end of your maternity leave.

Check your contract/T&Cs to see if your employer offers any enhanced maternity pay. If not, statutory maternity pay (the legal minimum) is 90% of your salary for the first 6 weeks, then £151.97 for the following 33 weeks. That's 39 weeks in total, which is 9 months. You have the right to take up to 1 year of maternity leave and if you did that the last 3 months would be unpaid.

If you wanted to try and maximise paid time off, you could start maternity leave around 1 October and end it around 1 July, then you would only have a few week back at work before the summer holidays. This does rely on baby not being early (statistically less likely for a first baby, I think on average they are born at 40+5 IIRC).

If your partner is a self-employed sole trader I don't think he would get any paternity leave or pay unfortunately. If he owns his own limited company and employs himself (so to speak) then he can pay himself paternity pay and claim it back from the government.

It's likely that after the baby is born, you'll be eligible for Universal Credit (depending on your income and savings). This will be a joint claim and as your partner is self employed, he'll have to report his earnings every month. See www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/on-universal-credit/how-universal-credit-works-if-youre-self-employed/

If you'd like to know how your finances will be affected by going part time, you could run some hypothetical figures through a benefit calculator such as Entitledto or Turn2Us.

Depends where you live? If you're in the uk term dates differ in each country. Friends I've known who live in England and work in school, with dc due similar times went back in September for a few weeks to ensure they got their full summer pay, then went back for a week before end of term in July, again to make sure they got summer pay.

Shared parental leave is not an option for the husband as he's self-employed.

"You do accrue holiday while on maternity so you may be able to add this time onto the end of your maternity leave."
Most school staff can only take holiday during school holidays, so it only works if OP ends her maternity leave before the summer holidays so that she is paid during that time.
It's not like other jobs when you can just add annual leave onto the end (because you can take annual leave any time).