Maternity Allowance eligibility

LucasWAG

Hi all - I hope you can help as when I was researching this it is all massively confusing. My wife has recently given birth and she is now on maternity leave. She was not eligible for Statutory Maternity Pay from her employer because she started work and then two weeks later found she was pregnant so we had to go down the route of Maternity Allowance.
She worked 13 hours weekly (Around £5k per annum) and I work 30 hours (Around £14k per annum). We live with family at the moment, however we are really in need of our own home/flat. Looking at the benefit calculators we're not eligible for anything barring Child Credits for £20.00 per week. The going rates for properties for rent in our area range from £450-500.00 for anything suitable to our requirements.
We cannot yet put in a claim for Maternity Allowance because we don't have a birth certificate yet (This will be next week). However while I was sure this would be absolutely fine, I am now hearing that we may not be eligible to even claim Maternity Allowance - As my wife only works 13 hours minimum wage, she doesn't pay National Insurance Contributions. However I am not sure if this is needed as she is not self employed.
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Wife: 13hr / £110pw wage (Or £99 if eligible for MA) / No National Insurance
Myself: 30hr / £270pw wage
Living with family (But looking at our own place)

poppy12345

Based on that then i'd say yes.

In the 66 weeks before your baby’s due, you must also have been:

• employed or self-employed for at least 26 weeks
• earning (or classed as earning) £30 a week or more in at least 13 weeks - the weeks do not have to be together

She doesn't need the birth certificate to apply for this. See link https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/how-to-claim

calcotti

When you refer to Child Credits do you mean Child Benefit? Child Tax Credits are not available for new claims unless you and your wife already claim Working Tax Credits.

See https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/what-youll-get
There’s a link to a Maternity Allowance calculator. The eligibility conditions are here https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility

Is your wife off work now having just given birth? If your only joint income is currently your £270/week you would, by my calculation, be entitled to about £300 of Universal Credit/month.

On UC if you rent a home of your own you will get additional money included to help with rent capped at the two bedroom Local Housing Allowance (assuming private rental) https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/

if your wife claims Maternity Allowance this will be deducted from your Universal Credit so you need to compare UC entitlement and MA entitlement.

If getting UC and this is your first child your wife could claim a grant https://www.gov.uk/sure-start-maternity-grant/eligibility

There are benefit calculators here https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

LucasWAG

Many thanks for early responses...
I do think she is eligible for Maternity Allowance, the spanner in the works seems to be around potential National Insurance - Otherwise yes, I think we would be eligible for the amount of £99.00 per week (Given she earns less than the £148 per week, and £99.00 is around 90% of weekly earnings)

Maternity Allowance for 39 weeks

You might get Maternity Allowance for 39 weeks if one of the following applies:

you’re employed, but you cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay

you’re self-employed and pay Class 2 National Insurance (including voluntary National Insurance)

you’ve recently stopped working

In the 66 weeks before your baby’s due, you must also have been:

employed or self-employed for at least 26 weeks

earning (or classed as earning) £30 a week or more in at least 13 weeks - the weeks do not have to be together
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I do see there is no mention of the birth certificate on the Maternity Allowance page, however when I have been completing the (VERY) in depth form for it - (assets.publishing.service. gov.uk /government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/705594/ma1-interactive-form .pdf) Page 19-Section 4 says birth certificate needs to be supplied (Along with wage slips for a pre-determined period, maternity forms etc etc)
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Regarding the child benefit - The only thing I was eligible for is £20 per week, this was taking my income into account as well as my wife's earnings (Maternity Allowance). I bring home short of £1,200 per month however my wife has not being getting any pay for the past 3-4 weeks I think - First her employer botched her maternity paperwork up but then the baby arrived 9 weeks premature so everything has been put on the backburner.
I have run through many benefit calculators and every one of them says I/we are not eligible for Universal Credit or other benefits. I created a mock-one up which showed my wife as being out of work (No job, no maternity allowance) and it said I would then be eligible for full Universal Credit, the only crux of that is she would not be allowed to just quit her job - Whatever the case I didn't see anywhere about a "top-up" which gives us extra if she maintains her job/Maternity.
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We are signed up for the local Housing Association, however we are deemed "low priority" even with a child now in tow - Because we live with family, we're not in "dire need" of a property. Thus we can bid, but there is always a minimum of 10 in front of us

Spoonie_Turtle

"I would then be eligible for full Universal Credit, the only crux of that is she would not be allowed to just quit her job"

Why not? For UC if she's caring for a child under 1 ( ... which definitely applies to your newborn baby!) as far as I understandshe'd not be subjected to any work-related requirements and therefore no sanctions for giving up her job. She'd have more conditionality as the child gets older but that's fairly natural for most families anyway for thw parent to start getting ready for part-time work when the child goes to school, I'd have thought. Though re-reading your post, you might already meet the earnings threshold where your wife doesn't have to look for work anyway. (I can't remember which threshold is what, off the top of my head.)

Have you checked how much you'd be entitled to help with rent using the link for the LHA calculator calcotti provided? I looked up the 2 bedroom rate for a few random different local authorities and it ranged from £99pw to £155pw, so unless your area is significantly below that it should pretty much cover you renting in the £400-£500 range, or at least not leave too much shortfall. With the child element and the work allowance meaning less of your wages are taken into account for UC it should theoretically be not too terrible.

If you find out your LHA rate, you can manually calculate your potential entitlement if you did find a place to rent and claimed help with that - both with and without your wife in work or receiving MA https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/new-to-universal-credit/how-much-youll-get/ Or one of us could do it for you, I'm sure  

poppy12345

It says birth certificate is needed if the date she had the baby isn't on the MAT B1.

If you did apply for UC then the MA will be deducted £1 for £1 from your monthly amount.

calcotti

As far as I can see there is no NI requirement in respect of an employed person qualifying for MA, just the£30/week minimum threshold.

For UC with a baby while living rent free you would have a maximum entitlement of £730.56. If the only income is your earnings of £1200/month there will be an earnings disregard of £439.11 (63% of earnings above £503) leaving UC payable of £292.45/month. This is obviously less than your wife will get on MA.

If you rent privately and get help with rent of say £500/month your UC entitlement rises to £1,230.56/month. The earnings deduction is £575.19 (63% of earnings over £287) leaving UC payable £655.37. Any MA in payment will be deducted from this.

LucasWAG

I see yes! I think I may be doing the benefit calculator wrong which is skewing my results. Although one other spanner in the works I had is I went to view a flat (Through an estate agents so not LHA) however the flat wasn't suitable sadly for our requirements... As I was leaving however, I did ask about benefits/Universal Credit and the estate agent said that "The landlord does not accept applicants who are on benefits as their insurance doesn't cover it".
I am sure I read a year or so ago they were not allowed to do that any more, but if the landlords are allowed to do this I have to wonder how I can ever get an estate agents-listed property if I am so low priority via LHA.
About the benefits calculator lastly - I have informed that my wife is getting (Or will be getting...) £99.00 per month Maternity Allowance. However later into the calculator it asks for what her monthly wage is.
I say £0.00 (Because her employer is not paying her now...) and it says that this is not a valid amount so I *have* to put her monthly paid allowance in which then comes back at the end that we're not eligible for payments.

calcotti

LucasWAG said:

I say £0.00 (Because her employer is not paying her now...) and it says that this is not a valid amount so I *have* to put her monthly paid allowance in which then comes back at the end that we're not eligible for payments.

Try putting £1 in the earnings box and see what happens. I'm sure that's not the proper way of getting the result but should give be a pragmatic work around.

pmlindyloo

As regards the benefit calculator are you putting in that your wife is employed?  If you have then this will 'skew' the results.  You need to put in 'unemployed' and then later it should ask for the MA.  (Haven't checked so hope this is correct)
As regards landlords and benefits this is a common problem and, as far as I know, there is nothing illegal about it.  After all, the landlord could just refuse you for any reason as long as they are not legally discriminatory (willing to be corrected on this)
You need to keep on trying.  Talk to colleagues/friends, look in the local paper.  Is there anyone who would act as a guarantor?  People on benefits do rent so it is not an impossible situation.

Caz3121

LucasWAG said:

The going rates for properties for rent in our area range from £450-500.00 for anything suitable to our requirements.

It is worth checking the LHA rates for a 2 bedroom property in your area for private rentals.
This is the maximum rent amount that will be used in calculations (and may well be lower than the majority of properties advertised)
https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Search.aspx