Help needed for homeowners regarding pregnancy

MoneyWorrier2

Hi, thanks for reading

Ok so my wife is pregnant 4 months gone. We own our house but we are worried about not being able to pay the mortgage while she's on maternity leave as we both work full time.

After the first 5 weeks it drops to around £600 a month which is around half of what we're used to. We haven't gone through a pregnancy yet so looking for advice on what to do and if there is any more help out there for hard working people starting a family?

Regards

Tom

MoneyWorrier2

We both work full time

I earn around 12.5k and my wife earns 14.5k

No disabilities and no other children

nearlyrich

Most people save as much as they can before they finish work to ensure the time on Mat Ben or whatever it's called these days is backed up with a pot of money to pay the bills... Have you got the capacity to save the money you will need before she finishes work?

pmlindyloo

MoneyWorrier2 wrote: »

Hi, thanks for reading

Ok so my wife is pregnant 4 months gone. We own our house but we are worried about not being able to pay the mortgage while she's on maternity leave as we both work full time.

After the first 5 weeks it drops to around £600 a month which is around half of what we're used to. We haven't gone through a pregnancy yet so looking for advice on what to do and if there is any more help out there for hard working people starting a family?

Regards

Tom

How much do you earn? When does she start her maternity leave?

After the baby is born you may be eligible for tax credits and child benefit.

You can put your details into the benefit calculator on https://www.entitledto.co.uk to see if you are eligible after the baby is born.

In the mean time you need to have a good read of this forum and check to see whether there are ways to cut down on your expenditure - checking you are on the cheapest utility provider/mobile phone provider/ reducing your food bill - there are many ways to live more cheaply.

As regards your mortgage it is possible that if you do get into difficulties then your mortgage lender would be willing to allow you to go on interest only for a while/extend your mortgage term/take a mortgage holiday. You would need to speak to them about this.

Babies do not need expensive gear. They just need to be warm and fed and, of course, loved. Do some googling about bring up a bay on a shoe string type thing.

Families and friends are fantastic for providing both new and second hand stuff.

You may get some comments about 'you should have thought about this before you had a baby' - just ignore them. Most people will give you really useful ideas if you can just be a little more specific about your income and expenditure.

Caz3121

I think you need to prepare to tighten belts from the period when her maternity pay reduces to when baby arrives. Your income for this tax year would be too high for WTC but once baby is here there will be child benefit and child tax credits
If you use one of the sites like entitledto and fill it in as if little one is already here, it will give you an indication of what to expect

billywilly

MoneyWorrier2 wrote: »

Hi, thanks for reading

Ok so my wife is pregnant 4 months gone. We own our house but we are worried about not being able to pay the mortgage while she's on maternity leave as we both work full time.

After the first 5 weeks it drops to around £600 a month which is around half of what we're used to. We haven't gone through a pregnancy yet so looking for advice on what to do and if there is any more help out there for hard working people starting a family?

Regards

Tom

Isn't it the case that most reasonable people will always have six months of mortgage repayments put aside for situations like this. We did and our children do also. It came in very handy when pregnancies happened and instead of being worried, you can enjoy life.
Both daughters' have £10,000 put aside at all times - even my wife still has her little pot of £10,000 which she has now invested in the new 3 year over 65 bond - it makes her feel secure.

Scarla

billywilly wrote: »

Isn't it the case that most reasonable people will always have six months of mortgage repayments put aside for situations like this. We did and our children do also. It came in very handy when pregnancies happened and instead of being worried, you can enjoy life.
Both daughters' have £10,000 put aside at all times - even my wife still has her little pot of £10,000 which she has now invested in the new 3 year over 65 bond - it makes her feel secure.

And again.................

TELLIT01

Your wife may be entitled to either Maternity Allowance of Statutory Maternity Pay which will soften the blow a bit. If you are concerned about being able to pay the mortgage while she is off you should speak to your mortgage provider sooner rather than later.
As for 'most reasonable people' having 10 grand put aside - I would suggest that's unlikely given the salaries state here. There again some people like to sound superior in their posts.

arcon5

In the last year hasn't really changed that much, so if you go back to when you started planning a family and look at what finances you predicted to assess whether having child was plausible then this should still stand.

Al1x

Why not try living on what your wages will be when your wife is on maternity leave? Save up the rest just in case you do start to struggle with your mortgage.

billywilly

Al1x wrote: »

Why not try living on what your wages will be when your wife is on maternity leave? Save up the rest just in case you do start to struggle with your mortgage.

That's exactly what they should be doing. It is what we did and what my daughters' did. In 8 months they each managed to save over £10,000 each! They saved their wages,