Maternity Benefits if you have savings.

taliwillow

Hello all,

My husband and I have finally decided to bite the bullet and go for it! We are going to try for a baby. We have it all worked out that over the next 9 months we could save enough money to cover my salary for a couple of months so with the standard benfits like SMP and child tax credity we should be able to get by until I go back to work. Then today I had a thought. If we have savings of (as a rough idea) £4k in the bank, would we still be entitled to these benefits? Without them and our savings I don't see how we will manage so if we won't be entitled to them, can anyone tell me how you do manage? I am a little obsessive about moneysaving so we don't really spend much money on things that we could cut out therefore I'm not sure what we could do.

Thanks

Taliwillow:j

Lady_E

I am certain that maternity benefits are NOT means tested, so therefore you will be entitled to these benefits if you had £1 in the bank or £1m.If I remember rightly from 3 years ago ,you get statutory maternity pay ,from your employer for 20 weeks (it may have risen to 26 weeks) and i think it is a percentage of your wage ,sorry I am vague on the formula they use. Good luck with trying , dont stress yourself .

Becles

Maternity pay isn't means tested as said above. Good news is that for babies due after April 1st 07, you can claim 9 months maternity pay instead of the current 6 months.

Tax credits are only interested in savings that make over £300 a year in interest payment. A few £K won't do that!

heather38

at the mo mat pay is 90% of pay from employer for 6 weeks and £108.85 per week for 20 weeks as stat mat pay although this may change in april when mat leave goes from 6 to 9 months. it is not means tested but is taxable!!!!. believe me save as much as you can coz its hardwork living on this money (i'm due in 10 days arhh!!!)

inkie

The amount of your savings does not matter one jot!

andycarmi

Also do you know?

Maternity pay in the UK is set to rise from October, from six months to nine.

'Statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance and statutory adoption pay will increase from six months to nine months for babies due on or after 1st April 2007.