Maternity allowance, Income support and Sure Start Maternity Grant

Nicky321

My daughter has been off work since the beginning of September due to pregnancy problems. She was not entitled to Incap and therefore went onto Income support. At 29 weeks she was entitled to claim the Sure Start grant from the social fund for £500 because she was in receipt of income support. At 34 weeks she claimed Maternity allowance and has today heard that they will pay MA from 23rd September because she was off sick at that time, which includes the 11th week before her expected date of confinement.

My question is will they now ask for the £500 sure start grant back?
because in effect if they backdate her Maternity allowance to the 29th week of pregnancy, she would not have been in receipt of Income support in the 29th week.

any help would be appreciated.

stazi

Unlikley to be asked for it to be repaid. On the day the SF Mat Grant was paid, as IS was in payment, then the SF Mat Grant would have been correctly allowed.
After the above date, if MA is now payable, and IS is not, it would be unreasonable to request repayment of the Mat Grant.

Nicky321

Happy New Year!

My daughter was told before xmas that she would receive all outstanding MA monies before the New Year, last Friday 28th December she rang MA benefits who told her that a payment had been issued for £1129.00 and would be in her account Friday 4th January 08, She has checked her account today and has still not received any money. She has been living off just over £43.00 a week for the last months of her pregnancy. She had her son on 14th Dec 07 and the last payment she received was just over £97.00 on 18th December 07. It seems like she will never get her money at this rate. She was relying on this payment to buy new clothes for the baby, has he was 59cm long when he was born and has outgrown a lot of his clothes already. Is it worth ringing them again? seems like shes being fobbed off with false promises continuously!

stazi

The payment could go in ANYTIME today. Give it until midday then ring JCP back to confirm the payment was requested last Fri. It normally takes 4-5 bank working days to go into an a/c.

J_pink

Can anybody tell me if you can claim Job Seekers and MA at the same time? I rang up Jobcentre plus last night and the woman didn't seem too sure of what she was telling me. She said I can claim Surestart grant too even though I will only be claiming JSA for a few weeks (before my MA starts).

I finish my job in 2 weeks and need to claim JSA before I am eligible to start recieving MA.

My husband earns £32K a year but this is spent on rent, bills and debt re-payment.

xmaslolly76

Hi J-pink im pretty sure that if your only getting contributions based JSA then you cant claim the SS grant its only if your on income related JSA. Do you know which one you will be getting? I would presume its the contributions based with your Hubby earning 32K.