Help! Am I missing something?

[mammyagain]

Hi Everyone, I am new here. I am due in April and already panic is rising because of finances.

I work full time, I am entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay but when I have worked this out its only going to be half of what I earn now (when spread out over time off) How, I repeat How am I going to manage on this amount of income? Is there anything else I can claim? I sincerely hope so as the SMP will only cover rent and council tax (just)....

I'm scared and anxious about this and would really appreciate any help and advice given xx

 

[frantastic20]

Hi there. My baby is due in four weeks and I will be going down to SMP too which is just over a third of my normal pay. I would suggest you start saving! DH and I have managed to put away some money to help us through the maternity leave. Make sure you have a really good budget for the next few months to enable you to spend as little as possible. You can look on moneysavingexpert.com for ideas on where to cut back.

Remember you will also get child benefit when your baby is born. And it's worth applying for tax credits to see if you're eligible (I know I'm not).

Good luck!

 

[xxembobxx]

WSS ^^
It's quite late for you to be finding out how little SMP is as it doesn't give you much time to save but that is what you need to do.
A lot depends on whether you are on your own or have a partner and what the household income is. You will get Child Benefit of £20+ per week and may get some tax credits.
You may also be entitled to some help with housing benefit or council tax benefit while on SMP. Try using web calculators such as entitledto.com which can give an idea of if and how much you could get.
Other than that you will need to budget really well. Breastfeed if possible as babymilk is very expensive!
You can always go back to work early, a lot of women have no choice financially but to return to work. Of course if you think you're income is low on SMP you should see how much it is going to cost you for a childcare place for baby

 

[Ellbee78]

When my husband and I discussed trying for a family we saved up as much as we could to offset the shortfall in income whilst I was on maternity leave. As other people have said, we looked into this first so then we wouldn't be left high and dry...

 

[mammyagain]

Thanks ladies for all of the advice. Its hard to save when I am already on such a tight budget, but I will try.

I don't think my current tax credits will go up whilst on Maternity Leave as your income isn't affected until the year after. x

 

[sj22]

I know this sounds stupid but you will manage. My pay went down considerably whilst on maternity leave and then I returned to work 2 1/2 days a week and now have to pay child care. We now don't have as many luxuries as we did, no takeaways etc

Look at all your outgoings, when insurances are due for renewal check compare websites (we saved half the amount for the year on house/contents insurance). We also switched internet provider which saved us money.
Good luck x

 

[xxembobxx]

I don't think my current tax credits will go up whilst on Maternity Leave as your income isn't affected until the year after. x

If you phone tax credits up once baby is born you can ask them to assess you on your current year income rather than previous. The only problem with doing that is you could end up with an overpayment if you estimate your annual income wrongly. Worth a try though if finances are that tight

 

[Dinah93]

Does your company offer any additional pay? Mine offers half pay on top of SMP for the first 6 months. The first 6 weeks are at 90% wage for everyone so try to save as much of this as possible, and if you can't cope you may have to bring your return to work date forward x

 

[Tjkitty]

This is a problem we have, more so since DH lost his job the week before baby came. I am just going to have to go back to work much sooner than. I would like