Benefits - Please help – So Confused

kooger21

Hi

I really need some help regarding benefits and tax credits etc

I work full time 37 hours a week and my girlfriend is a full time nursing student, she is due to finish her course about August time.

We have just found out that she is pregnant J And will be due about the end of October.

She currently has one small part time job which she fits in around her course and this is just 6 hours on a Sunday.

Chances are when she finishes her course she won’t be working as it will be too close to her due date.

I earn about 22k a year.

What I really need to know are all the benefits we will be entitled to, I get really confused looking on the net.

Thanks for your help.

kooger21

I forgot to add, we live together, and she currently pays me £50 a month towards the bills, im not sure if this makes any difference, thanks

bestpud

Congratulations! :beer:

Re benefits: You will get child benefit of £18 ish a week.

You will get child tax credit too, but I'm not sure how much. If you put your details into entitled to website it will give you an idea. It is based in the previous years earnings to start with but if you put in what you will actually be earning, it will be a fairly good estimate of what you will receive. It will halve when the baby is a year old.

If your OH goes back to work and does 16 hours or more, you may get help with childcare too. I'm not sure about that one though.

You would be unlikely to get housing benefit or council tax benefit on your income.

Hth

Bestpud

kooger21

So £18.80 a week child benifit and £20.96 child tax credit oh and im guessing we might get the £500 surestart grant?

As my partner wont be going back to work for about 10 months is there nothing else we can claim? working tax credit? JSA? etc

More advice please, thank you

Scarlett1

I would have thought you earned too much for WTC and JSA is for people who are looking for work, the only thing you can probably do is if you are living hand to mouth then your partner going to work partime in the evenings when you can babysit or find a job as a nurse and put the baby in childcare, im not sure of the age but know lots of hospitals have creches

kooger21

Mitchaa

Thanks for the reply, she will only get a small amount of maternity pay i guess from her litlle part time job, i assume this is what you mean, prob about £22 a week. + the child benifit of £18.80 a week + CTC of £20.96 a week, does that sound about right?

Its a shame about the surestart is there anyway i can confirm if we would get this or not?

Thanks

dmg24

If your girlfriend has sufficient NI contributions (did she work before becoming a student, and if so, for how long?), and is looking for work (or at least, appears to be looking for work), then she will be entitled to JSA.

kooger21

No she done her A levels, then straight into a 3 year full time nursing course which completes on the 15th August, the baby will be due about the 1st November. The only work she has done for years is 6 hours a week on a Sunday. So is JSA still a possibility?

kooger21

So to confirm it looks like this is what we will receive:

£18.80pw in child benefit
£20.96pw in CTC for 1st year
£22pw which will be her basic mat pay as she doesnt do many hours

:-( - Looks like evening more saving ahead now.

bestpud

There's a thread on the family forum somewhere about getting baby essentials as cheap as poss. Or only buying what is needed.

It may be worth you having a gander as there's some quite useful stuff on there.

Becles

Sorry to say this but I don't think she will be entitled to any maternity pay as she hasn't paid any NI contributions. Both SMP and MA are dependant on your recent NI record. If she is only working 6 hours a week, she won't be paying NI.