Maternity leave

fattyc

Hi I am planning to take 12 months maternity leave. From my employer I get 12 weeks full pay, 12 weeks half pay (plus statutory maternity pay on top), then 15 weeks SMP, then nothing. That takes me up to about 9 months off work. My question is, for those last 3 months can I claim any benefits or do i just have to live off my savings?

Also can I make a claim for working tax credit or whatever its called? And how do they work out what I am entitled to if my income is changing every few months when I am on maternity leave?

My hubby works and we have a chunk of savings, do they take savings into account?

Thank u

karenx

You wont get any additional benefits as you are chosing not to go back to work early.
You can add up what you will earn over the year and tell tax credits, plus the income your partner earns. The cut off for working tax credits for a couple is 18k so if the income is over this you wont qualify.
You will still get child tax credits and child benefit

fiodyl

I think it will depend on how many hours your husband works and how much your joint income is. If he works full-time I don't think you will get income support but you may be entitled to some housing/council tax benefit. Also I think you can get tax credits if you earn up to £60k with a baby under 1, plus child benefit as well. There is a website called entitledto that can give you a rough idea of what you might get. Hope this helps.

cazj80

Tax credits will be changing from April next year (2011) and the cut off I think will be £40k income for tax credits, so entitledto will only tell you what you would be entitled to for this tax year, I don't think it can tell you what you will get for next year after the changes.

fattyc

for your replies. Looks like we will just get child benefit as our income is above £40k. We own our home so housing benefit won't apply. Just wondered!

clb776

No, you wouldn't be able to claim anything else because you are married.

When claiming SMP, you can take away £100 per week which you do not have to include in your years income, this can mean that your income drops considerably and may mean you are entitled to more tax credits. When you are no longer being paid anything from your employer you are not technically employed, I know that if you were single you would need to inform tax credits of this change, but am not sure for a married couple!

Good luck with the baby!

Murgatroyd21

If you remain on maternity leave after 9 months and where you aren't getting paid for those last three months, if you are claiming tax credits you should notify them, married or single, as you aren't counted as employed for that time. It may not make a difference to most entitlement depending on the hours worked by the partner and household income, but it can if there were childcare costs as both partners have to be classed as working a maximum of 16 hrs each.