Pregnant student needs to raise £400

abby1234519

cloey wrote: »

You are such a strong person, i've only read your post and i was like that's inspiration. To be able to be like screw him, I can get on with my life and raise my child by myself. Amazing.
You should definately go to your university and tell them your situation and they normally have hardship funds for cases like yourself. If you'll be recieving housing benefit etc at the time you should go to your local Job Centre and talk to someone, they normally have help funds. Make sure you're getting all you're entitled for. And if you recieve bursary etc from uni make sure you change your circumstances when your baba is born. Tutoring is definately a great way to make some money just now, just get some business cards printed and leave them in libraries or put up on gumtree etc.
Good luck, i'm sure you'll do amazing.

Well I'm going to apply for the hardship fund although I did last year!
I Wong be eligible for HB till baby is born so can't apply for any help like discretion sry funds till then. My theory is raise all the money I can and hopefully I can get the rest from uni and as a last resort increase my overdraft temporarily. I'm hooked on watching my eBay sells!

cloey

abby1234519 wrote: »

Well I'm going to apply for the hardship fund although I did last year!
I Wong be eligible for HB till baby is born so can't apply for any help like discretion sry funds till then. My theory is raise all the money I can and hopefully I can get the rest from uni and as a last resort increase my overdraft temporarily. I'm hooked on watching my eBay sells!

I don't think they'll reject your claim because you applied last year, you're normally allowed to apply to once per term.
My cousin was in the same situation that they won't help until the baby is born, which is a bit unfair to say the least!
I love watching my eBay stuff when it sells,
All the best hun

abby1234519

Well I'm downloading the form and printing it now then lol
I wonder if they'd pay a months rent hmmm that would be cheeky but I can only ask I guess

vroombroom

Abby if you are really struggling can you ask parents to help you? or speak to your landlord to see if you can pay it over 2/3 months?

Keep persuing the tutoring - I tutor students up to GCSE level in Spanish and German (have done for a few years) but I only charge £10 an hour, good little income boost

Speak to your uni as well and see what help they can offer.

What are you plans with uni when your son is born? I am starting uni in Sept but will be going back to work part time and will get a little bit of help with childcare. Not much as both myself and partner work so we are lucky to get child benefit.

ButterPie_2

Once the baby comes, you will get child tax credit as well as extra student loan and grant - does your university have an advice centre in the SU? They should be able to help you work out what to apply for.

abby1234519

ButterPie wrote: »

Once the baby comes, you will get child tax credit as well as extra student loan and grant - does your university have an advice centre in the SU? They should be able to help you work out what to apply for.

Should be seeing the su on friday but the increase student finance doesn't start till September and it's Augusts rent that is the problem

abby1234519

vroombroom wrote: »

Abby if you are really struggling can you ask parents to help you? or speak to your landlord to see if you can pay it over 2/3 months?

Keep persuing the tutoring - I tutor students up to GCSE level in Spanish and German (have done for a few years) but I only charge £10 an hour, good little income boost

Speak to your uni as well and see what help they can offer.

What are you plans with uni when your son is born? I am starting uni in Sept but will be going back to work part time and will get a little bit of help with childcare. Not much as both myself and partner work so we are lucky to get child benefit.

My parents have 3 children between 8 and 14, I left home 4 years ago so really I made my bed so lie in it! They can't afford to help if they wanted to. Obviously it's not that they don't want to, but I am an "adult" at the age of 22 so need to look after myself. I will be staying with them for a couple of months over the summer so they can teach me how to look after the baby but that's the only support they can provide really.

I'll be back at uni full time in October it's 8 hours a week and my course ( English literature) is something I excel in and it doesn't take me much effort, it will just be about prioritizing my time to get research done and write the essays I never suffer writers block!

pcal

do you know you can get the sure start grant fr baby things and thats 500. you can get this from 28/29 weeks i think. i know its ment for baby things but maybe if you can get most things cheqap of ebay or even freecycle then you could use some to pay the rent.

absolutelynomoney

Hi there, I had a similar situation to you last year so here's my input:

Mystery shop! If you're in a university town, odds are there are loads of places to cover. Hop over to the mystery shopping thread on this forum and get some ideas, but I found I got the most and best work from Gapbusters, Retail Eyes and Gfk.

Tutoring - good route to go down. Create an ad on gumtree every week or two and grab some free postcards and business cards from vistaprint.com and leave them in strategic places! Also make sure you list yourself on google places; I get most of my students call me after googling for a teacher, it's like a free mini-website/advert.

eBaying you're obviously onto already, so good luck!

Benefits - you should be entitled to the sure start maternity grant of £500. Also make sure you claim your "health in pregnancy" grant that EVERYONE is entitled to. I think you can claim it around 26 weeks, but ask your midwife about both of the above as she needs to sign the forms.

If you are not eligible for statutory maternity pay, at 11 weeks before your due date you can apply for maternity allowance and income support in lieu of it to compensate you for maternity leave.

As for CSA - is the baby's father a student? If he is, they can't ask him for anything until he is no longer studying and even then, until he is working above a certain threshold, the amount you will get will be only a token if a few £. They also only pay arrears from when THEY get in contact with him. So by all means notify them when the baby is born, but if they can't get hold of him because he is abroad, they will try 3 times and then you will have to open a new case. So I would open a case initially, then try to keep an ear out for when he is back in the country and then go from there.

Good luck - it will be hard at first but your gorgeous one will be worth it! I actually didn't go back to uni because I couldn't bear to leave my little one at any daycare when he was so small (I was going to have to start when he was 4 months) - I just didn't want touss any of hid precious new life. It'd the best thing I ever did - I took a full maternity leave and have found a work from home job with Usborne. I also teach children's music groups as I am a pianist (was studying music). There is always time to finish your studies, but you can't get back that first year of their life when everyday brings something new!

iamana1ias

absolutelynomoney wrote: »

. Also make sure you claim your "health in pregnancy" grant that EVERYONE is entitled to. I think you can claim it around 26 weeks, but ask your midwife about both of the above as she needs to sign the forms.

HIP grant has been scrapped (since January).