Help,baby on way, work part time or not?

forrest38

hi

baby on the way due in december. myself and my girlfriend both work 40 hours in jobs we have been in for 4 years. both earning around £220 home a week. own our own house with mortgage etc

my girlfriend will be taking maternity for a few months but we really dont know if she should go back to work part time or be better off not going back at all. not a benefits fraudster but just want as much time with our baby as possible if we can afford it.
i have tried the various calculators, entitled-to, hmrc etc but whoa its confusing.
how much including all the various tax credits, child allowance etc(i really dont know what any of them are) can we expect to get if she worked say 15 hours a week or not at all.

we are pulling our hair out trying to work this out and its getting closer the time to when we need to tell the employer the plans.

anyone any good advice would be most appreciated. i really mean it

Ex-Spendaholic

Firstly congratulations :beer:. Secondly stop panicing, you and your girlfriend don't have to decide anything just yet.


She can take up to 1 year off on maternity leave. The employer works on the assumption that you are taking that full year. If she plans to return before the year she needs to give 8 weeks notice.

With regard to deciding whether its worth returning or not, you need to consider a number of things. If she returns who will look after the baby, how much will it cost? Will working be worth if financially? Work out a few scenarios of numbers of hours worked and what salary she would have. Phone the Tax credit helpline and ask them to work out what you would get. Neither of you are earning a fortune so I would imagine you will get a decent amount of tax credits.

Child benefit is paid to everyone. You'll get £20 a week and its paid 4 weekly.

Don't make any rash decisions now things change when a baby arrives so its best to wait.

It would be worth asking on this section as they know what they are talking about on there:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=139

seatzie

congrats, and don't panic!

only thing I have to add to the excellent advice ex-spendaholic gave you is I think 16 hours a week is a threshold as regards tax credits etc, if you're over that I think they count you as full time - not sure what impact that has on the figures though - if you decide she won't work at all be sure to check out the National Insurance ramifications for later in life - i.e. make sure its recorded she is a stay at home mum and doesn't just disappear off the radar as that could affect the pension she gets later in life

spendaholiceejit

Hiya,
I have two children aged one and three and for me, when we did work out going back to work after our first child, it was only worthwhile going back full-time or nothing.

Working Tax Credits were very helpful as they paid 70% of our childcare fees that first year. My hubby is Self Employed and had only started his business up, so income was low at that stage.

However, she does have another option if she does want to work, but cannot get the figures to add up- self employed and working from home. This is how we are doing things at the moment and it means that I have minimal childcare costs now, and still able to keep my hand in my career for when I am able to go back and devote myself when the children are older.

Don't stress at the moment about making any decisions. This can all be decided when you see how you cope on maternity pay.

Best of luck with your little one!

forrest38

Firstly many thanks for everyones help.

Hi
sorry I should have said that my girlfriend is planning to return to work but only part time after two months after the baby is born. We have mums and dads to look after the baby the two days she may be working. But Will going back to work for 15 hours a week at 6.50 an hour leave her with around the same income as not working at all. If you know what I mean, there's no point going back early to work for ineffect nothing extra out of it.

seatzie

leaving aside the financial side of things mate, will your girlfriend be ready to return to work 2 months after the baby is born? you may find her feelings are different once the child is born, I'm a bloke but 2 months seems very very quick.....