Benefits Question

bubblesbrian

Evening all.

I (Obviously have a question ). My partner is on Maternity Leave that ends in December. We have worked all benefits etc out (obviously only estimates) and for us it looks like if the OH goes back to work we would be £10 better off a week.

So she's decided not to go back to work. My question is this........ I have heard that they are basically forcing new mothers back to work. Is this true?

onthebreadline

Hopefully someone will be along to answer your question shortly, only know that if you receive maternity benefit/pay and don't go back to work after a certain time (6 months) then it has to be paid back (in my last work anyway!).

Hope someone knows better, time lengths and figures, to let you know.

wrightk

i presume your working? if your living together in a household your partner wont be forced back into work. Always make your applications for benefits jointly.
When my partner was pregnant we really struggled, she only got SMP and weren't entitled to anything until this ceased.
We tried to calculate benefits and when her maternity pay ceased and made the decision to not go make to work we ended up better off than we calculated.
It all depends on your income, depending on this you should be likely to be receiving CB,tax credits (working and child) depending on income and hours.If your on a low income your entitlement may creep into HB

wrightk

and also another point to note is that it is impossible to predict your income from benefits in the future as some work in the past tax year. You will be better off once your partner has given birth and definately better off from april 2011 as things like tax credits disregard or take off £100 per week of every week your partner was in receipt of maternity pay, meaning your income from the previous year will be greatly reduced, increasing your entitlements to help

MrsManda

onthebreadline wrote: »

Hopefully someone will be along to answer your question shortly, only know that if you receive maternity benefit/pay and don't go back to work after a certain time (6 months) then it has to be paid back (in my last work anyway!)

This is true in a lot of work places - you have to pay back the difference between the materity pay received and SMP. The OP's partner needs to check her contract to find out if this applies to her

bubblesbrian

Cheers for all the replies so far.

We are both currently working (obviously she's on Mat Leave). Apparently If she don't go back to work she won't have to pay anything back as it's only Statutory Maternity Leave (or SMP).

We are currently claiming :

Child Benefit & £20 a week
Child Tax Credit & £20 a week

I did fill in the Tax Forms and have yet to receive my letter back stating what we are going to get, even though for the last two months we have been paid it. Been trying to ring them tonight though as family are saying that we should be receiving Working Tax Credit too. Our Joint income is around £30,000 a year.

One family member states that it's because I only put the OH's bank details down so they can not pay her the Working Tax.

Thoughts?

Indie_Kid

Your income is too high for working tax credit.

wrightk

make sure in april 2011 you phone tax credits back up, tell them about your partner. They will disregard 3900 of her income as 39 weeks of SMP @£100. This will reduce your income for the previous tax year as a couple to 26,100 im not sure of the thresholds for working tax but that may push you into entitlement

kingfisherblue

WTC threshold is about £17,000

Duncombe

OP - whats your income alone? Thats important to work out entitlements if your partner is not going to go back to work.

You're right, if she was only paid SMP she doesn't have to repay anything if she she doesnt go back to work.

As kingfisher says, the threshold for WTC is about £17k for a couple.

Can't really answer anymore about entitlements until we know your income.

bubblesbrian

My income before tax is approximately £18460 before tax.