Pregnant - due in 6 months - cant work out how our finances will be effected?

PrincessJR

Hi All,

I am pregnant and due in April 2012. At the moment my Husband and I both work F/T and earn £55k jointly. I plan to take 12 months off work and go back P/T after this.

I have trawled the internet for calculators or advice to help me work out how much less I will be earning, what tax credits we may be entitled to etc but all of the calculators go on last years earning, plus.....our baby hasnt been born yet so I cant enter 'childs birth date'.

I need help with:

F/T (39 hrs) salary £30k (do I just pro-rata this for 22.5 hrs?)
On my 'new' P/T salary will there be any benefits I am entitled to?

We wont really have childcare costs until our child is 2yrs old which is when we will want them to go to nursery to socialize. Until then, parents want to look after them for us - very lucky!

Sorry if thats all a bit too much info, I would just really appreciate some guidance.........

Thanks you

MrsManda

Does your company have an occupational maternity pay scheme or will you only be receiving Statutory Maternity Pay?

Have you spoken to your employer to see if coming back PT is an option? I'm not sure when you are supposed to discuss this with them but there was a thread on here recently where a person had planned to do reduced hours after their maternity leave but hadn't asked their employer, just presumed that they'd be allowed and then was turned down.

To work out part-time pay everything should be pro-rata'd so you divide your current salary by the number of hours you currently do a week and then multiply the result by the number of hours you expect to do as a PT employee.

I don't think you'd be entitled to any low income benefits on your lower salary as your household income will still be quite high. You can get a rough idea by putting your estimated part-time salary as if you are currently earning it into a benefits calculator alongside your husband's current salary.
http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx
In this case make up the birth date of your child - it's a rough calculation but should give you some idea.

PrincessJR

Thanks for your reply.

I work for a Local Authority and going back part time is an option for me, and yes I will get OMP for 9 months (the final 3 months are unpaid - we have set money aside for this period).

I will check out the calculator - thank you!