not sure who to ask

jimmy_teabags

Hello

Me and my g/f are execting our frist child in june. i work full time at the co-op on £16,500 and my g/f works full time at £15,500.

Now she is leaveing in may on materity, but will we get any benfits when her wage drops to ssp pay?

who do i ask?

allen35

Your girlfriend will get stat maternity pay and you will get child benefit of £18.10 per week and probably child tax credits.
based on income though this wont be much as she should receive £112.75 per week SMP as well as your income.
Someone will tell you if you're entitled to working tax credit and any other benefits.
I wish you both good luck as i know how hard it is with your first child financially, luckily we coped and have 3 now.
Go to HMRC website to get more details, there is a calculator which should work out your approximate entitlement.

mitchaa

Your earnings will be calculated on what you earned between April 07 and April 08 which would have been £32000 or thereabouts.

With an income of £32000 you'll not be entitled to any benefits as such apart from the £545 family element of CTC (doubled in 1st year to £1090) and the £18.80pw child benefit.

So £18.80 + £20.96 = £39.76pw in 1st year. (£20.96 drops down to £10.48 after baby is 1)

Your GF will still be in employment during her maternity so she will still be receiving a FT income. Regardless if it drops from say £300pw down to the SMP of £112pw.

Your claim wont be able to change until April 09 where your earnings between April 08-April 09 are taken into account. This i would imagine will be quite a bit less than £32000 so you may be eligible for more benefits then.

bestpud

The initial tax credit award is based on your previous years income BUT when you notify them that your earnings have decreasdd, they will issue a new award based on your income at that time.

Mitchaa - your post is incorrect!

On £16500, you will be entitled to ctc dor definite and maybe wtc (not sure with only one child). The ctc however, will be a lot more than the base amount of £545 a year and it will still be double for the first year.

I'm not sure how the maternity pay fits into this - ie whether they count all of it as income.

However, please be assured you will NOT have to wait until 2009 to have your change in income to be taken into consideration!!

mitchaa

bestpud wrote: »

The initial tax credit award is based on your previous years income BUT when you notify them that your earnings have decreasdd, they will issue a new award based on your income at that time.

Mitchaa - your post is incorrect!

On £16500, you will be entitled to ctc dor definite and maybe wtc (not sure with only one child). The ctc however, will be a lot more than the base amount of £545 a year and it will still be double for the first year.

I'm not sure how the maternity pay fits into this - ie whether they count all of it as income.

However, please be assured you will NOT have to wait until 2009 to have your change in income to be taken into consideration!!

That is surely incorrect?

The £16500 figure doesn't exist as the mother will still be earning, granted it will not be her usual £15500 income but as far as im aware she will still be earning a salary. (She will be earning full salary for at least 1 month April to May) and then depending on her company depends on how long afterwards she will still receive full pay.

I.e for example....

My wifes salary was paid at full 100% for 2 months, 90% for 1 month and then 6 months at SMP.

That if i was in the O.P situation would have been added on top of the £16500 figure, so the £16500 figure never exists.

Additional to that, im sure your figures are incorrect, im almost sure the child element of CTC is set low at around £14500.

May be wrong though,

I would assume the mother would still earn 5-6k at the very least of her £15.5k salary so income total would be roughly £22k?

I am almost sure that would put them out of reach of child element of CTC? (which i think is set around £14500)

How would you be able to update circumstances before April 09 with mother still in full time employment? Would you do so as soon as she dropped income to SMP?

I thought you would have needed to wait until the next tax year as earnings would fluctutate throughout the year and how would you be able to give them a figure of what you were expected to earn?

bestpud

mitchaa wrote: »

That is surely incorrect?

The £16500 figure doesn't exist as the mother will still be earning, granted it will not be her usual £15500 income but as far as im aware she will still be earning a salary.

I.e for example....

My wifes salary was paid at full 100% for 2 months, 90% for 1 month and then 6 months at SMP.

That if i was in the O.P situation would have been added on top of the £16500 figure, so the £16500 figure never exists.

Additional to that, im sure your figures are incorrect, im almost sure the child element of CTC is set low at around £14500.

May be wrong though, but i would assume the mother would still earn 5-6k of her £15.5k salary so income total would be roughly £22k?

I am almost sure that would put them out of reach of child element of CTC?

Ah right, yes I see where you are coming from. I am not sure how maternity pay is calculated but I was going on them getting smp only. Do they take the whole amount into consideration? I ask because not all benefits are fully considered for tax credits.

The £16500 was if the mother does not go back to work - the OP doesn't mention what they intend to do.

The incorrect part (sorry I didn't make it clear I was only talking about one bit of your post ) is where you say they will have to wait until 2009 to have their new income taken into account - they won't at all.

I have two children and get more than the basic element on almost £20000 a year. We have no childcare costs either.

The £14500 is, I believe, where wtc kicks in as we were entitled to that on dh's income of £14000 and still would have been with only one child (eldest dd is 16 this year and they give you notice of what you will get if they don't stay in education).

bestpud

mitchaa wrote: »

That is surely incorrect?

How would you be able to update circumstances before April 09 with mother still in full time employment? Would you do so as soon as she dropped income to SMP?

I thought you would have needed to wait until the next tax year as earnings would fluctutate throughout the year and how would you be able to give them a figure of what you were expected to earn?

You can definitely let them know and get the award changed before the end of the year.

I can't see why they can't notify them as soon as their income drops to smp. If the mother does not return to work, or takes extra maternity time unpaid, then they will be able to claim on the OPs income alone.

If she goes back to work, they will be able to add childcare to the claim. I'm not sure how much childcare they'd get on the joint income but if she went back part time, they may get something.

If the mother were to give up work and go back to a different job later in the year, the new income would not be taken into account until April 2009 (unless it made their income rise more than £25000). But the other way around, they will change the award before the end of the year.

[Deleted User]

When declaring your income to Tax Credits Office, you can disregard the £100 per week of pay/SMP.
So if your partner takes 26 weeks off, reduce the declared income by £2600.
If she takes the 39 weeks off, reduce the declared income by £3900.

[Deleted User]

If longer than the 39 weeks is taken for maternity leave this would be unpaid leave, so for Tax Credit purposes she would need to inform then she was "unemployed" as she is not in remunerative employment.

mookie

subsoniccoyote wrote: »

When declaring your income to Tax Credits Office, you can disregard the £100 per week of pay/SMP.
So if your partner takes 26 weeks off, reduce the declared income by £2600.
If she takes the 39 weeks off, reduce the declared income by £3900.

Sorry to hijack the thread Op.

SSC; When my mat pay dropped from full pay to smp I called tax credits to tell them about the drop in income and they were not interested, they asked me to call back when I had actually left my employment. Was that the wrong advice and if so will that level out on my backdated payment? (I have already been told I am due a backpayment when I do my declaration)

[Deleted User]

Sounds like a lazy adviser mookie, they should have asked you to work out your income and took that from you as it could have increased your payments. It is best for some people to wait until the end of the tax year before giving their income details as they underestimate their income and they are overpaid. And when you do stop being employed or being paid by employer you should let TCO know.