Maternity Leave & Benefits

Cupcake23_2

Hiya everyone, newbie here :j

I have been lurking on these boards for quite some time now, and have come up with a question I wondered if anbody could help with?

My husband and I got married in July and are now onto the subject of babies. We are hoping to start trying after christmas but are struggling with figuring out the money side of things. All the benefits are so confusing!

I know that when I take maternity leave from work I am entitled to 1.5 months at 90% of my normal pay and then go on to SMP. I was just wondering if anybody could let me know what I/we would be entitled to? I currently take home around £1200 a month after tax and hubby takes home about £800. Our rent is £625 pcm for a 1 bed house but are obviously going to have to find something bigger for when we want to have children, have put in our housing application form but understand we wont be top priority for a long long time.

We have never claimed benefits so have no idea what to look into. I have tried the calculator before but we are entitled to nothing at the moment, which I didn't think we would be anyway.

Would we be entitled to HB at all? Im really sorry if i could have found this out on the HMRC website but I really can't get my head round it all I'd really appreciate any help!

Tigsteroonie

SMP will be 33 weeks of £128.73

You will be entitled to Child Benefit, and probably some Working Tax Credit & Child Tax Credit. I would suggest that you try a Benefits Checker but pretend that your baby is already born (in terms of "current" income level)

With your husband earning less than you, have you considered returning to work earlier and allowing him to take Additional Paternity leave instead?

Cupcake23_2

Thank you that's really helpful.

I think I will have to return to work sooner rather then later which isn't really what I wanted but the way things are, we wouldn't be able to afford just him working.

We'll definately need to do a lot more thinking about it, but it's good to know I can use the turn2us website, thank you.

boo_boo_bear_2

Just a tip, when working out your income for tax credits and housing benefit don't quote the net amount after tax etc always use the gross figure.