Paternity / Maternity Benefits ?

barneygaucho

Morning all

I'm going to be a daddy for the first time at the end of march. The good lady shall be off work for a year in which time her salary will drop a lot. Can someone point me in the direction of where to start looking for any benefits we may be able to get?

Also, i'm self-employed. How does that work from a paternity benefit point of view? Does it even exist!?

thanks

notanewuser

barneygaucho wrote: »

Morning all

I'm going to be a daddy for the first time at the end of march. The good lady shall be off work for a year in which time her salary will drop a lot. Can someone point me in the direction of where to start looking for any benefits we may be able to get?

Also, i'm self-employed. How does that work from a paternity benefit point of view? Does it even exist!?

thanks

Going to need income figures here.

embob74

uh-oh.....you really should have been finding this stuff out months ago!! As far as I am aware if you are self-employed you will not be entitled to paternity pay.
Depending upon your joint income you may be able to claim tax credits and child benefit (housing benefit and council tax benefit if income is really low).
You will soon find out that unless you are unemployed your income will drop drastically when you have children :-(
Congratulations to you both x

podperson

Sorry, there is no paternity pay for self-employed people. You should be able to claim child benefit, child tax credits and depending on your joint income possibly working tax credits and housing/council tax benefit.

notanewuser

podperson wrote: »

Sorry, there is no paternity pay for self-employed people. You should be able to claim child benefit, child tax credits and depending on your joint income possibly working tax credits and housing/council tax benefit.

Child tax credits are means tested as well.