How does maternity pay, child tax credit and child benefit work?

skintchick

Do you get them all at once? Or are CTC and CB only paid once you are off your maternity pay? I've looked online but am still confused. Due my first child in May, hubby is working, I want to give work up (once maternity is over!) and we are trying to work out our budget to see if I can afford to go on maternity early (As i hate my job).

Thanks!

Auzelia

once the baby is born (if its your first) you would register the baby,
then claim CB and send away the birth certificate.
once that is sorted and you have your CB number you would claim CTC and WTC. CTC everyone gets WTC is based on your earnings for you and your OH on P60 year 07/08.
You will get SMP/MA when you start your maternity leave.
And you can claim all 3 at the same time.
Even if you are going to leave your work at the end of Maternity leave you can still claim WTC. once you leave you will have to inform them so they can base the figures on your husbands wage.

When are you due. as parents due a baby from april 09 can start claiming CB from the 29th week of pregnancy.

Just saw you are due in May, you can claim CB from the 29th week of pregnany then, not sure how maybe with the MATB1 form.
But CTC and WTC is still only claimable when the baby is born

CB from April will be £20 p/w

skintchick

Great, thanks for that! Think I can afford to bail out of work at the earliest opportunity

Auzelia

no problem.
just keep an eye on the information that is spewed out around april , as thats when the SMP/MA money may change from £117.18 to more. CB and CTC has already been confirmed as going up. Unsure about WTC.

Good luck

Becles

Congrats on the baby :beer:

If you go to www.entitledto.co.uk and put in a fake DOB as if baby was already here and just your husbands salary, it will tell you what you are entitled to with tax credits which will give you an idea of your income after baby arrives. It'll also tell you if you are entitled to the Sure Start Maternity grant which many don't know about. I didn't know about it but managed to claim it when I was expecting my daughter last year, so I was thankful that someone on here told me.

Sorry to hear you hate your job. It's early days yet and your body is probably still quite normal! Once baby gets a bit bigger and you start having a bump to pat and rub, and little limbs start whacking your insides about, you sort of end up in a pregnancy bubble! It doesn't matter what is going on in the real world, you just sort of rub your bump and drift off into a nice fluffy dream world. You'll understand when you get there

Come and join us on the Parents thread in the Marriages and Families board. You'll get loads of tips and advice on there about baby things, especially all those silly niggly worries as we've all been through those and survived

skintchick

I did have a go on entitled to and it said we could have £570 WTC which I assume is monthly (!) and it seems a lot - I didn't expect that with hubby's salary at 37k we'd be able to get very much at all. With maternity and child benefit on top of that we are looking at a fair whack - almost a decent salary!

Auzelia

the first year of the babies life you get more ctc and ( i think wtc)

tsstss7

skintchick wrote: »

I did have a go on entitled to and it said we could have £570 WTC which I assume is monthly (!) and it seems a lot - I didn't expect that with hubby's salary at 37k we'd be able to get very much at all. With maternity and child benefit on top of that we are looking at a fair whack - almost a decent salary!

Thats more likely to be annually i would think.

As far as I know you get maternity pay (smp or ma) from up to 11 weeks before the edd (expected date of delivery) and this lasts for 9 mths or until you return to work (you can decide to go back early but then forfeit entitlement to smp/ma).

When the baby is born you will then also becme entitled to child benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit which is dependant upon your household income minus maternity pay. (maternity pay is not counted as income for either ctc or wtc so this is as well as your normal ctc etc entitlements.)


hope this helps

tinkerbell84

tsstss7 wrote: »

Thats more likely to be annually i would think.

Definitely.

surreysaver

Auzelia wrote: »

CTC everyone gets

No they don't. You only get it if you earn less than about £60k a year.

DaisyFlower

If your OH earns £37k you definitely wont get £570 tax credits a month - you'll get approx £90 a month until the baby reaches one and then it drops to £42 a month approx. CB is around £18 a week.