please help

HANNA

I am a married woman under 30 who is also in full time student doing my last year in university. My husband is on £30,000 p.a and we have a big mortgage of £800 per month.

Due to my uni workload I had to quit my job. However, recently I have found out that I am just over6 weeks pregnant. I have tried to find a pert-time job since but it seems impossible. By the time my uni finishes in May, I wont be receiving my student loan any more and the fact that I am pregnant will put the employers off. I was wondering if I can claim any help from government and if there is any law to protect from discrimination by employers?
please do help me if you can as we are struggling financially a lot which has stopped us to enjoy the pregnancy. I was diagnosed infertile years ago and I never thought I will this chance to conceive.

BOBS

Sorry cant advise on your financial situation. But congratulations on your pregnancy - thats fantastic after your diagnosis!!! - try and relax and enjoy this special time - finances usually have a habit of getting sorted if you are sensible x

Aarons_mummy

On an income of £30,000 I highly doubt you would be entitled to any benefits at all. You can apply for work and I don't believe that there is any reason why they *can't* empploy you but I think you would find it very hard to prove that you were not emplyed dut to pregnancy.

You don't legally have to inform your employer of your pregnancy until you are 15 weeks (or that was the case when I was pregnant) do you have to bring it up in an interview? Could you apply for agency/temp work, self employed work, Avon etc even if it was just a small income.

If you post your statement of affairs over on the debt free wannabe board they can give you idea's of area's you could cut down your spending. Check out the oldstyle board for idea's on cutting down shopping bills, batch cooking etc which will hopefully save you money.

There are many people on these boards who manage to live on a lot less than your income so hopefully there'll be area's you can cut down to save money so that if you don't manage to find a job you won't be feeling so hard up.

Congratulations on your pregnancy I imagine you are over the moon

Mupette

congrats on the little miracle.

Pop over to the The MoneySaving in Marriages, Relationships & Families Board for help with saving money before during and after pregnancy, don't forget all the supermarket babyclubs too.

It is possible to get a job whilst in pregnancy, although in this climate rare. Good luck, have you thought about retrain as a childminder? they reason i say childminder, you will never have childminder problems yourself, and get paid to look after and care for another child or 2?

DaisyFlower

Once the baby is born you will get £10 per week tax credits (until the threashold gets lowered to £25k) and £20 a week CB.

Unless you have worked and earned enough to qualify for maternity allowance then there will be no help from the state as your household income is deemed plenty for two adults to live on. Families live on far less than £30k so you need to look at your outgoings.

Temping may be an option workwise as most employers have the choice of candidates at present and would likely choose another over a pregnant person who would only work a few months and then take leave for the best part of a year.