can you help me figure out maternity pay stuff??

emmamc252

Hi, am hoping that someone can help me to work out exactly how much going on maternity leave will cost us.
Ok, I am a teacher so at the moment I eran about 26k a year before tax. Its only just gone up to this so I can only tell you that my take home pay per month last year was £1490 ish, I pay into a pension scheme which costs about £130 a month, and obviosuly tax, NI etc.

I am trying to work out exactly how much money We will lose then we can work out how long I am able to have off. This is my 4th year at my current school so I qualify for occupational maternity pay as well as statutary. so...
4 weeks full pay,
next 2 weeks 90%
next 12 weeks 50 of my pay + SMP
then it goes to statutary maternity pay only.

So what I want to know is how does this all work with my tax and stuff, I just don't get it, will I pay less tax so kind of overall it won't be so bad? like will some of it come back to me in the long run?? Also Will I get any child benefit money from the government or will we not qualify? are there any other benefits we can get? My husband earns about 30k a year??

Any help would be much appreciated, I am hoping to be able to afford to take at least 6 months, but it is very hard when you have a mortgage and bills to pay. We do have about £12k of savings but I don't really want to eat into this too much, We have never used credit cards and don't have any loans etc apart from our mortgage and I wouldn't like to get myself into a position where I may have to rely on this sort of borrowing for those rainy day occurances.

Any help would be much much appreciated.

Duncombe

Ok. I'm sorry, I dont have the time to work out your exactly what you will get for each month of your maternity leave (perhaps you could do this on one of the long nights waiting for your baby to arrive...!). However, as far as other benefits go I can advise you here.

As soon as the baby is born, you can apply for Child Benefit (CB). It is about £20 a week if this is your first child.

You can also apply for Child Tax Credit (CTC), but as your joint income is £56k a year, this will be half of !!!! all. I think its about £10 a week.

You will not be entitled to Working Tax Credit (WTC) as your income is weeeey too high.

Thats in as far as benefits go.

I obviously don't know how much your mortgage is each month, or what kind of lifestyle you and your husband lead - but with his income of £30k, your Maternity Pay and the savings you have, I would expect you to be able to afford to take atleast 6 months off.

Oh, just for your info; SMP is paid at a rate of £124.88 a week (this will help you when you work out what you will be takng home each month).

iamana1ias

emmamc252 wrote: »

Hi, am hoping that someone can help me to work out exactly how much going on maternity leave will cost us.
Ok, I am a teacher so at the moment I eran about 26k a year before tax. Its only just gone up to this so I can only tell you that my take home pay per month last year was £1490 ish, I pay into a pension scheme which costs about £130 a month, and obviosuly tax, NI etc.

I am trying to work out exactly how much money We will lose then we can work out how long I am able to have off. This is my 4th year at my current school so I qualify for occupational maternity pay as well as statutary. so...
4 weeks full pay,
next 2 weeks 90%
next 12 weeks 50 of my pay + SMP
then it goes to statutary maternity pay only.

So what I want to know is how does this all work with my tax and stuff, I just don't get it, will I pay less tax so kind of overall it won't be so bad? like will some of it come back to me in the long run?? Also Will I get any child benefit money from the government or will we not qualify? are there any other benefits we can get? My husband earns about 30k a year??



Any help would be much much appreciated.

I worked this out last week for a teaching colleague of mine. I've transcribed it below using your figures.

£26K = £500 per week.

4 weeks full pay = £2000
2 weeks 90% = £900
12 weeks half pay = £3000
33 weeks statutory mat pay = £4100

So for 9 months' maternity your gross pay would be £10,000 and after pension, tax and NI you'd see £7536 for the 9 months (equivalent to £837 per month). Your actual monthly pay would vary according to which part of the mat pay you were in at the time.

Duncombe

iamana1ias wrote: »

12 weeks half pay = £3000
.

The OP stated she will get 12 weeks half pay + SMP.

Half pay = £250/week
+
SMP = £124.88/week.
x 12
=
£4500 for 12 weeks.....

Duncombe

Duncombe wrote: »

The OP stated she will get 12 weeks half pay + SMP.

Half pay = £250/week
+
SMP = £124.88/week.
x 12
=
£4500 for 12 weeks.....

Ah, I see what you've done.

Apologies

karenx

Im sure the tax credits amount is going down soon also so anybody earning over 50k will not qualify.
You wont get any help towards childcare costs either

Indie_Kid

karenx wrote: »

Im sure the tax credits amount is going down soon also so anybody earning over 50k will not qualify.
You wont get any help towards childcare costs either

In April 2011 it goes down to £40k and no baby element.

emmamc252

I think that my school take part in something called "salary sascrifice" for childcare, so it means that you can pay some of the nursery fees out of your salary before tax and NI is deducted so you save a little bit. its still a way off but I just like to have finances in order!!! Thanks for all the help!! I think my plan willl be to take 4 and a half-6months for this baby as it is our 1st, and then hopefully when god willing baby number 2 comes along we can dip into our savings and I can spend the time with both children for maybe the 9 months.

meds12_2

Don't forget that when you apply for child tax credits, take £100 per week from your maternity pay (so when you are on solely SMP your income will be £24.88 per week).

Congratulations and good luck! Are you thinking about going back full-time after mat leave?