Pregnant student needs to raise £400

absolutelynomoney

P.S.: Contact Gingerbread - they are THE charity for single parents and their website has loads of information sheets, but they also have a free helpline where they can talk you through what benefits you are entitled to, how much, how to get them, etc and they can help you with questions about CSA, or really any advice you need about being a single parent and practicalities/problems that arise.

absolutelynomoney

iamana1ias wrote: »

HIP grant has been scrapped (since January).

Oh right - sorry, my mistake.

I knew it was being scrapped but didn't realise it had happened already.

In that case, I'm pretty certain the Sure Start Grant which was previously £500 is now only £250, but as I said - check with your midwife - she will know the details.

DS4215

If you are good at writing (as an English lit student you should be), sign up for PeoplePerHour/oDesk/eLance etc and apply for some writing jobs. It might not pay vast amounts (typicaly $5 for 500words), but 2-3 articles per day is $300-450 a month (£200-300) and every little helps. You would have to register as self-employed and pay tax on that though.

abby1234519

pcal wrote: »

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.

I've already taken freecycle and ebay into account. I literally intend on spending NOTHING on the baby at the moment. That might sound harsh for the poor baby but I know that my mum spends everyday on Freecycle where she lives collecting things for him so I should be ok in that matter, the only thing I'd need to buy really is a a car seat and a cot.

absolutelynomoney wrote: »

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!

I will seeif my mystery shopping accounts are still online! As for CSA and I know I am going to get lambasted for this but I sort of don't want to bother. I don't want him having anything to do with him financially if he doesn't want to be emotionally. Its all or nothing for me (by all I mean contact)

I do understand the first year of the babies life thing, but I can't afford not to be at university with my debts and stuff so will plough through

abby1234519

absolutelynomoney wrote: »

P.S.: Contact Gingerbread - they are THE charity for single parents and their website has loads of information sheets, but they also have a free helpline where they can talk you through what benefits you are entitled to, how much, how to get them, etc and they can help you with questions about CSA, or really any advice you need about being a single parent and practicalities/problems that arise.

I shall have a look at Gingerbread, not so sure what to ask them though! I know what benefits I can get I just can't get them till he is born, I get no help in the month beforehand :O

absolutelynomoney wrote: »

Oh right - sorry, my mistake.

I knew it was being scrapped but didn't realise it had happened already.

In that case, I'm pretty certain the Sure Start Grant which was previously £500 is now only £250, but as I said - check with your midwife - she will know the details.

The grant is still £500 but you can only get it for the first child. I#ll probably be using it to be septembers rent. I am currently applying to charitiable grants and trusts to see where that gets me!

sarahevie

I've been called in to help an e colleague supporting an undergraduate pregnant student in my old department.

I had two children whilst at uni (albeit whilst doing a PhD) I seem to end up getting drafted in to help with pregnant students a lot now lol:rotfl:

Will HB not cover September's rent. I'm struggling to understand where you are struggling for money. If you are getting all your baby stuff free (nothing wrong with that) I was given a lot by generous relatives, my mum spent £250 on the remainder pram, crib, car seat etc.

The benefits for single parent students are very generous we reckon our student will be getting £24,000 a year, although there's some discretionaries within that like we're not sure whether they will qualify for. Income support, Housing Benefit what rate will it be paid at, how much will they actually get etc?

Childcare is only 85% paid up to £150 a week, but full time childcare will be £200, for our student, so they will have to contribute £72.50 for that.

Even so it is still a very high income. We live as a family of four on less than that - bearing in mind there's no tax on it

Good luck being a student and a mum is hard but worth it:j

abby1234519

Because aprils loan has to cover April to septembers rent. Benefits only start after the baby is born and take a month to appear, so august is a blackhole month and as I will be with a new landlord taking me on without a guarantor I must pay the rent! Once September comes you are right my income goes up. But the LHA only is 495 and I'm going to hBe to pay between 550 and 600 per month. I have looked at cheaper places but they are all in the back to backs that have all bedrooms on separate floors and I need two bedrooms onthe same. Im going to view one this week that's 3 bed for 600 same price as a 2 bed and it's an actual house not a box. The last one I saw the staircases were so narrow you wouldn't be able to carry a baby up them.

vivlfc

Hi Abby,

Not sure if students still need any of the above as it hasn't been mentioned but it's something you can do from home and with finals coming up there might be some work around.

Good luck.

Viv

abby1234519

Can I just ask does this seem OTT or not

I went to view another house, landlady is lovely and its on the way to uni. Well ie, the walk to uni goes past a nursery. Now...its a two bed with a study. As its a 12 month tenancy I need two beds to start with because I cant sleep in the same room as a baby for 12 months. Its £600 per month but I get £495 housing benefit. My dad told me today I was punching above my weight when my mother criticised the two bed that had the two bedrooms over two floors, she said the bedrooms had to be on the same level.

Btw £600 is kinda all I can get around here its not really price. But I AM upset at being told I am going over the top :S I'd want to stay there for at least 2 years after all

DON79

Hi... I would agree with your mum about wanting the bedrooms on the same floor if it was me. I have kids and I just would have nightmares about fires etc and not being able to get upstairs or downstairs to get them out if there was a fire... sorry! just a thought that went through my head.

Yes you will need two bedrooms but generally the baby stays with you until they are six months old and then into their own room. You could probably stretch it to a year in with you and then consider moving to a 2 bed. It might be best not to overstretch your finances by paying more than your housing benefit if you can help it as things are going to be expensive for the first few months up until baby is 1. I am thinking of the tins of baby milk which cost a fortune until they get onto cow's milk... My youngest is six months and I hate paying so much for baby milk but it has to be done

but saying that, if a 1 bedroom costs the same or maybe only £20 less then it won't make a difference so you might as well have the 2 bedroom place...

hope you find the perfect place soon.