Couple thinking about a baby

Engeroosi

My wife and I are considering trying for a baby but unsure what benefits and pay my wife would recieve whilst on leave.

I work full time and earn ~40k, she works currently full time and earns 24k. She will be looking to take first 6 months maternity leave then go back to work maybe 3 days a week if not full time.

What maternity pay and benefits would we be entitled to?

ClareEmily

I am currently on Maternity leave, I was on £23k and hubby approx £25k self employed.

We got £411 back payment on child tax benefits and now get about £42 a month, we earned too much for working tax credits.

We now get approx £81 per month child benefit.

PS I planned to go back to work after 6 months hahaha, I then extended to 9 months and yesterday resigned and now will be a SAHM for a while at least, when baby arrives your priories change and your whole world turns up-side-down. I always thought I would return to my old job but now impractical.

Do have in the back of your mind that you may become the sole income provider, especially with childcare being so expensive, and also a little person tugging on your wife's heartstrings.

nannytone_2

if she's worked for her employer long enough she will get maternity leave............if not she might get maternity allowance.

if you earn 40k a year what help do you think you should get?

ClareEmily

As nannytone says I got SMP from my employer for 9 months which is just over £500 per month.

Engeroosi

Regardless of what I earn I feel I should get what I am entitled too, there are alot of people out there never worked and living off the tax my wife and I have paid. Hence why when and if I am able to claim anything back then I will be whether we NEED it or not.

She has worked for her employers for a year up til now. So should be entitled to SMP.

nannytone_2

on your income alone you will get childd benefit

mrsspendalot

Engeroosi wrote: »

She has worked for her employers for a year up til now. So should be entitled to SMP.

Yes, she would get SMP. She should check her company maternity policy to see if they offer contractual maternity pay at a higher rate. For example, I'm about to go on maternity and my package is as follows:

6 weeks @ 90% earnings
12 weeks @ half salary + SMP
then the remaining weeks at SMP only up to a maximum of 39 weeks

You would get child benefit once the baby was born too unless you earn over the high rate tax band, in which case the plan is to stop this from 2013.

Your earnings will be too high for a maternity grant or tax credits, but whilst pregnant and for a year after the baby is born your wife would get free prescriptions and NHS dental care via a maternity exemption certificate. I don't recall that being income related (although I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong)

Engeroosi

Also SMP surely?

zjclarke1

You will receive £81 and a few pence child benefit every 4 weeks and your OH wll get £487 roughly every 4 weeks wage. I just went back from mat leave 3 weeks ago and that was what i got. now we both work full time. i earn 22k and my OH earns 16k and we only get £161 every 4 weeks child tax credits and no working tax credits but over 40k a month you get nothing. If you want a child dont think about what money you will get but if you earn enough and i'm sure you do considering we do and still have money left over earning a lot less than just yourself between us.

Engeroosi

Thanks to all the posts on here, I never really expected such amount of debate.

People go on about the property prices being too high but yet my wife and I have managed to get on the property ladder and it has meant we have a large mortgage. So in terms of me being on 40k alot of this is swallowed up by the mortgage. Which I must add Nannytone would never of paid the amount we had to pay for a roof over our head.

I am not looking to sponge off the government and both my wife and I have worked since we were 13 years old. And if I am on such a high salary then it means I also pay more tax. Which means in real terms I am more "entitled" to assistance than someone on a lesser wage. BUT that is not my arguement.

All I want to do is make sure that when we take a life into this world we can give this life the best start possible. My wife does know that her work only pay the basic maternity pay which is why I came on here to ask what this was!

Thanks again, hope i have clarified a few things.

agentpodge

I do not think that people should judge just on someone saying they earn £40K and automatically assume they can afford a child without benefits. First you need to know the person's full circumstances. As FBaby said, £40K in London is a lot different to £40k in other parts of the country.

Before I moved to London I earned half of what I earn now, yet I am now worse off! I know the next judgement would be that it was my choice to move to a more expensive area but that is not the case, and isn't the case with everyone.

£40K doesn't necessarily mean someone can sustain the huge expense of a child. £40K means a tax rate of £40% so a take home salary of around £24K (national insurance hasn't been factored in here; not sure if there are different rates of that for different earning levels).

Someone on £25K pays 22% tax so would bring home around £19,500 after tax. So, the original poster is only bringing home £4,500 more than someone who earns £15K less than him!!!! Ok, its still more but not a lot when you compare it. And he actually only brings home £600 more a year than I do, despite the fact that he earns £10k more than me! so when you look at it like that, initially assuming that he is better off than me because he earns £10K more is ridiculous.

Also, as his "high salary" means he is entitled to less benefits than someone on £25K, he and his wife will probably be worse off financially than someone who earns less and can claim more benefits.

I do not think it is fair to assume that he is just trying to claim what he can for the sake of it and assuming that he doesn't actually NEED the financial assistance.

Yes the benefits system is unfair, I have so many gripes about it but why should a hard working man be slated for claiming benefits to which he is entitled by law,and which he probably needs when his wife will be not earning whilst on maternity leave. Shouldn't the harshness be directed towards people who have never worked (though their own choice), and claim all sorts of benefits and sometimes being better off than people who work.

I think its a shame that someone posted a totally ligitimate question and has been slated for it! I actually think its sensible to consider financial circumstances before having a child. It is better than going into it blindly and then getting into all sorts of debt problems because they can't afford to sustain the expense of a child.

Lastly, I don't know what benefits you would be entitled to so sorry I can't answer the original question but I feel strongly about the abuse the poster has received for his question. Its making me feel that when I am ready to have a child, I will not be able to ask such a question on this topic board because i'll be judged and abused, yet its an entitly proper question to ask on this board!

Good luck with your new baby and I hope that some people can start to see past what someone "earns" and consider that they may not be as better off as they originally may seem after you consider all factors.

PS. My calculations aren't meant to be accurate - just a rough idea so people can see that earning more before tax doesn't necessarily mean bringing home much more at the end of each month.