New Baby on The Way

mitch_gordon

Hi folks,

I'm hoping somebody out there can give me some advice on what benefits my partner & I will be entitled to after the birth of our 1st child at the end of next month :j

I have never claimed any kind of benefit in my life so the Benefits website is a bit of a nightmare.... :mad:

Basically, between us we earn approx £38k a year and we are both in full-time employment.

For the first 3 months that my partner is off she will receive full pay from her current employer. After these 3 months she will then go onto SMP for the remaining 3 months.

At this stage are there any benefits that we can claim?

Also, after the 6 months she'd like to go back to work part-time. This will help save us some money on childcare costs.

Are there more or different benefits we can claim here?

If it was going to be possible I'd also quite like to go back to work 4 days a week to cut the costs further. This would take our combined earnings down to approx £25k.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we'd like to get it sorted ASAP. :T

Many thanks,

Gordon.

SuziQ

I know for sure you will get the basic ctc element which is doubled for the first year of a childs life,think that makes it around £990,and of course child benefit.
Even on £25,000 it's quite a good income so not sure what you will get but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along.

Ann1984

As far as i know you will only get ctc and child benefit...£38k is a good income and evenif you drop it to £25k you still wont get anything else...as far as i know.

There are other things out there ie the £500 surestart grant but that has to be claimed before the baby is 3 months old and you need to earn less than £25k too.

Try calling the inland revenue, they will tell you what you can and cannot get but to be honest i think it is just the two mentioned earlier.

Good luck with the baby

Ann

mitchaa

There will be absoloutly no difference in TC awards between £25k and £38k earnings..

It will be the same £545pa (Doubled to £1090 in 1st year)

DreamerV

Bear in mind if you claim tax credits (which you should, as it sounds like you'd be elligible), you would phone up their helpline (0845 300 3900) and ask for a pack, which would only have space for you to write your 38k income. Once you send the forms back, and the award is issued back to you, you should phone with the drop in income i.e. give your separate current year estimates. For each week that your partner is on SMP, you can deduct the first £100 of it (if less than £100/wk then you discount it completely)....remember to check if, although the employer is paying full pay, then dropping to just SMP, to find out if those full pay months are subsidised by SMP, as then you can make deduction for then too. On taking away your SMP allowances, you might find your declarable income to be less than 25000, and you might be entitled to more help...so it is worth phoning them and telling them. (make sure when at the end of the tax year when you do your declaration, that you take off your SMP allowances off your P60, as the P60 will include the whole amount otherwise). If you are paying childcare at any point, let tax credits know all the dets (name, address, reg number, approving body, average weekly cost) even if you don't get help with it, as even if you don't qualify for help, it can sometimes help you get more money from tax credits anyhow with the way the taper calculations are done.

That's a bit longer than what I mean, but I hope it helps

Oddgy

Gordon - U r lucky. My fiancee has been with her job for 12 years, and she is also expecting next month. However, her employer are only paying the Statutory Maternity Pay, so thats 6 weeks pay at 90% her normal wages, then we go onto the smp rate, whereby for 33 weeks at they pay her £117. Naff Naff. Anyhow, sorry to jump in your post, i am too in the same boat looking for some help and advice so ive just got the number from here that Dreamer has posted and on the fone now to them..but been in a queing system for 8 mins. Darn 0845 numbers!!

mitch_gordon

Dreamer,

Thanks for the detailed advice. Kind of what I was looking for. I'll try and give the IR a call at some point or even get her to do it as she's off work in a week for 6 months!!

Oddgy,

Sounds like you might be in line for a bit more help than ourselves. I know what you mean about those numbers!! Rubbish!

Gordon.