SMP?!

My first time around, strangely wasn’t as bad as I expected. I came out with around £800 a month (not a lot) but it just covered bills and food shopping. However we have now got a much more expensive mortgage, nursery costs and other expenses I didn’t have with my first child and I am honestly panicking at how we will survive! All whilst in the middle of a house renovation! I would suggest (if you can) work some KIT days with your current employer, this gave me around £100 a month extra as I just did one a month, but I feel you, it’s going to be rough x

@charlotte I am going to look at KIT days where I can - the hard thing is we don’t have a date to move yet but it’s looking like it’s gunna be pretty soon so I’ll probably only been on MAT leave for a few weeks & because of the job it is I can’t work from home or anything like that. I find it really hard because we don’t have a choice but to move & I feel like for working mums with a spouse in the army there isn’t support - I’m having to loose out on extra money each month because we will HAVE to move. It’s so frustrating. I am looking at around the same £800 ish each month & that just about covers my bills and food 🤣 I feel like there needs to be more support for women who aren’t entitled to benefits! Xx

I’m in the exact same position!!! However I’m not even entitled to occupational maternity (long story but I’m a teacher and left to go to another school which was bloody awful so returned to my original school) so I’ve not been there long on enough on my new contract for occupational maternity. In fact I’m only on a fixed term contract so come august I don’t have a job. Luckily baby due in September. To help myself out I paid for all my car bills annually so nothing big and excessive is coming out my monthly income once I’m on maternity. Other than that I am also panicking about money but other mums just tell me ‘you’ll make it work trust me’ I wonder if we would be entitled to universal credit under the conditions that we have had to stop working…? Are you part of a Union for your workplace ? My union offer a hardship fund which isn’t needed to be paid back!

Adding into the good company here of those worried about it! We've been trying to aggressively save - and I love the idea above of making big payments now to avoid the stress during mat leave. But having limited cash coming in feels worrisome. We'll all get by though!!

@Emilie honestly it’s stressing me out so much!! Because he’s in the Army we don’t have a choice once they give his orders we will have a date to move, I don’t have the option to continue living where I am (we’re due to move from the north to the south) I’m with UNISON so I might speak to them and see what can be offered!! I also don’t have the option to pay off things in a big lump for the year otherwise that honestly would’ve been a godsend haha!! Xx

I can't work overtime due to childcare and the house that would be required for me to do overtime so my husband is working his arse off at the moment so we can survive me being off for 12 months. His work are great and he gets 6 months pat leave at full pay 😩. I get nowhere near that. We managed fine with our first but now our mortgage is triple what it was so even with the extra savings, were still worried. I don't think he's gonna have the 6 months off. He will probably have 3 months off and then have to go back to working the overtime to cover my wage cause smp is shocking. It's less than the national living wage so god knows how were expected to cope

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/715292 This is a petition to raise SMP to NLW. It needs 100,000 signatures for the government to respond

The smp isn’t as bad as you think. There will be no luxury’s like your normal income having the extra £50 here and there to treat yourself. You just get the basics xx

@Emma oh I don’t live for luxury haha, the SMP will literally JUST cover my bills, I won’t have ANYTHING left over after 🤣

That should be ok! Cover the bills and the child benefit will be a help for nappies and wipes! If your breastfeeding much better. And hopefully other things you need hubby can cover. I saved a bit before I left so I had a little bit to spend each month. Things do come up and you do want to enjoy your time off with baby. Even if it’s 1 croissant a week 😆😆 x

Yea first time round we had nothing left over , but me and husband have a joint account so we work out what all bills are going to be and they save now to cover the rest . See if there is anything you can cut down on I guess , it’s really tough

@Emma that child benefit is excellent, it does cover essentials for baby

I know your not asking this but have a look at local things in the area your going for free things to take baby too like the library has free stuff on for example . So atleast if you have no money left you and baby can get some out

@Emma my SMP doesn’t even cover my bills 😂 I’m going from bringing £4k a month home to £800 so my bills reflect my normal wage.. the only way to survive for me is saving as much as I can now, but also will likely pop a lot on a credit card to pay back when I go back to work 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes I’m worried just about the few months I’m on SMP! Our mortgage is super high now thanks to interest rates. So when im on SMP it’s a lot my husband has to cover. I’m dropping my son to 2 days (from 3) from nursery to try and save some money. I wanted to save, but that’s just not happened. We don’t get child benefit as my husband earns over the threshold. It’s going to be a tight time that’s for sure!

I feel you! I am freelance so I only get SMP… and it’s more than £2k less than my normal wage 🥲 (which don’t get me wrong I’ve been grateful for but the change up will be starkly different) … I basically spent the last year saving as much as possible so that I effectively will use my savings to pay my half of the mortgage, which is extortionate 😵‍💫… and then will use the SMP for everything else. It’s nerve wracking for sure!