Maternity Leave !!

I want to know about maternity leaves and benefits!! Can somebody help me!

I applied for universal credit and because we own our own home and it has a lot of capital in it I’m entitled to nothing! It’s a joke, it’s not like I’m going to sell the house when I’m on my maternity leave 🙈

We own our home (mortgaged) and my partner works full time for only a bit more than minimum wage and we weren’t entitled to anything 🤷

To be honest, 60% of your wages is pretty good going. A lot of people only get statutory maternity pay which is terrible. That's all I'll get as I'm self employed so just had to save loads before baby comes.

Omg what? Can I get benefits on maternity?? I’m on 45% pay

You probably won’t get anything but can give it a go.
You need to really have no savings and not be really earning anything as well as partner and not own your home.
It’s reserved for people who are really struggling.
60% wage is great. You would have factored that in when deciding to have a baby that your money would drop.
Usually people only get £150 a week x

File now and file by paper and you’ll have a check in 30 days. I had all the documents and paper ready at the hospital. Make sure you have all the documents!

If your from the UK you can go onto the gov.uk website and use the benefits calculator, that’s probably the best way to find out quickly, or ring DWP their number should be on google!

What do you mean?

I have been self employed for 7 years, despite paying my taxes and NI I am apparently only entitled to £27 a week 😂 it has been sent to be reassessed as I should be on £150 a week but tbh, we made the decision to have the baby so we have spent the last 2 years saving and have a buffer for me to be off work for 4 months, I then return part time.
Would have loved to have taken a year but as SE there is only savings and Covid had a huge impact on my work. (I work in private healthcare)

Would love 65% of my salary. Yes, everyone situation is different, but it is a responsibility of the individual to live within their means, budget and plan

Best to apply for what you think you are entitled to and go from there

Hey! There are benefits calculator you can use to help work it out. I used this calculator https://benefits-calculator-2.turn2us.org.uk/

I'm going to get 90% of wage fore 6 weeks and then this drops to sat pay of £151 a week. My husband is on 24k a year and we rent privately. Using the calculator it says im entitled to an extra £49 a month which includes the £20 a week child benefits which everyone gets. Please bear in mind that due to covid there was a £20 p/w booster to universal credit which is going to be scrapped in autumn. There are people petitioning for it to stay so fingers crossed it does!

I'm lucky to have an employer that gives a half decent maternity package (NHS). I also accrue annual leave whilst on Mat leave so can tag that to the end of my maternity which should give me another month full pay. Check because you may be able to do that too.

I don't think people realise 60% of your wage is only good if you earn a lot to begin with😂
For example 60% of my pay is the same as SMP which is obviously shit so the people saying 'I'd love to be on 60% of my wages' yeah I'm sure you would and I'm sure OP would love to be on 60% of your pay too😅

Which benefits can you get ? I’m due in November so if you can help that would be great xx

If you're on universal credit you can get food vouchers too! Also get the £500 maternity grant and anyone can claim child benefit too xx

They will use your previous years income, 2020/21, to assess what your entitled to and as this will likely be based on you receiving a full wage you won't be entitled to anything if you earned over the threshold.

Your best bet is to contact citizens advice and they will advise the best course of action to take as from what i've been told, the move from child/tax credits to universal credit has made the process a lot more difficult and people are losing out on benefits they are actually entitled to.

Can you apply for any of these before baby is born? I’ll be receiving SMP in a months time as I’m still in my first 3 months of maternity but wasn’t sure what I could apply for, as I’m receiving 90% of my wages for the first three months so I’ve held off?x