We need help please x

sunrise27_2

my daughter is trying to work out if she's entitled to any benefits but is totally confused plus she says each time she goes onto the entitled to ' website and puts in her info it changes ? so I thought I'd come on here as I've read a few posts and there seems to be some whizz kids on here that might be able to help
I'll post what I know and think you might need to know and if you need any more info I can get it for you
in the year April 14- April 15 my daughter earned £17000 ( £3000 of that is a monthly performance bonus ) so its £14000 basic and then £3000 which is split over 12 months , my son in law ( they're not married ) earnt in total £9000 but some of that was statutory sick pay as he was off work for about 6 months as he broke his leg I know some of it was full pay but I think there was about 4 months ( ish ) that it was statutory sick pay.
Now this year they are expecting a baby in October, my son in law now has more hours and his income is approx £16000 a year , my daughter has had her normal salary ( £17000 per annum ) for April, May , June , July and will get it for August and September , she finishes work on the 2nd October and will be getting 90% of her pay for 6 weeks once she's had the baby and statutory maternity pay for 36 weeks ( I think thats right ? ) I'm thinking they take last years pay into account when working out their entitlements ? will it make a difference now theres a baby involved ? they have a shared ownership flat which they own 30 or 33% of I can never remember and then pay rent on the rest. Also when working out the statutory maternity pay her HR department say her bonus isn't included but from what I've read they look at what you've earnt between week 17 and 25 ?? is that right and then use those figures so any overtime, bonuses etc count as long as they've been paid in that period ?? any help would be greatly appreciated as we're sooooooooooooooooooooooooo confused if you need any more info just ask x x

pmlindyloo

This link may help you:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance/maternity-benefits-technical-guidance

So you can see that bonuses are included for calculation purposes - the important part is when they are actually paid.

As regards your other thread tax is paid on SMP but how much will depend on how much she has earned already. Remember, there is a tax free allowance of £10600 for each tax year.

When baby is born they will be eligible for child benefit.

Tax credits are complicated so will let one of our 'experts' answer.

The only other benefits are housing benefit and council tax reduction for the 'rented' element of the shared ownership. Tax credits would be counted as income for HB and CT reduction so the tax credits need to be sorted out first.

Caz3121

what counts is the total income for 14/15 and the total income for 15/16
for 14/15 you state this is £26k - this is the figure that will be used for the calculations unless the 15/16 income is over £5k higher or less than £2.5k lower
For 15/16 they can ignore £100 per week of maternity leave for each week that is applicable so their total will still likely come out similar
As long as the estimate for this years income is between £23.5k and £31k the tax credits will be based on the £26k from 14/15. This is around the cutoff for one child so will get very little in the way of child tax credits if anything

sunrise27_2

is it right that they don't take the first £100 of statutory maternity pay into account when working out tax credits ?

sunrise27_2

so they're literally £455 over the limit