Pregnancy related illnesses and benefits?

jellyhead

i'll look for that nappy liner thread then :-)

i think you can get JSA or something if you have no other source of income starlite, i left my uni placement when i was pregnant, i had glandular fever and the doc signed me off for 3 months so they said i might as well leave and give them a chance of getting another student in to finish my work. it was an unpaid placement for charity so i was on a grant. i went onto income support, and repaid part of my grant. it's a shame you weren't given the correct information, i hope it gets sorted *HUGS*

i agree that smokers should be able to smoke somewhere if they choose to do so, but i don't think they should be able to smoke wherever they feel like it. the hospital has gardens etc. that they could walk in rather than huddling around the doorway. i don't think smoking should be allowed in the queues for rides at theme parks, in bowling alleys during the day, etc. etc. - i think smoking is an adult pastime and shouldn't be allowed near other peoples children. i especially hate shopping in town, toddlers and babies in prams always seem to catch the ash people flick without looking at where it's going, a friends baby was burned and her face is scarred now. when i look after my little nephews who also have brittle asthma we have to stay at home, three times i've taken them out and one of them had to stay in hospital because of a smoker - i'm not taking them into pubs, this was the bowling alley, the park in town and at alton towers :mad: rant over :-)

as for the CTF, i'll not be putting any extra money into it. roo will have his own bank account, same as spud.

Spendless

Gingham_Ribbon wrote:

There's another reason I'm not sure about the government baby bond. If that's the only savings you have for your child, you can't take money out and they are the ones that have full control of it when they're 18. What if they need some urgently before then? What if they're like I was at 18 and would blow it all on parties, records and drunken holidays?!

I wasn't sure what to do with me and I've got the situation where the youngest gets it and the eldest doesn't. I just opened a savings account for her at same time as I opened a CTF account with the £250 given to me. Less well off families get £500. I understand it will get added to at 7 but not sure how much.

I don't intend to add to the CTF for the reasons you've stated, and will put additional savings into the other account.

Just going back to what jellyhead was saying about you possibly getting the £500 (surestart grant is it called??) and the baby element of CTC of an extra £545. Though you've had incurred the nursery costs before you got this extra cash, my daughters nursery accepts payment by cc, so it might be an option to pay using a 0% and then pay off as and when you get the extra cash in and before the 0% finishes.

starlite_2

I wouldn't imagine I could claim jsa as I am having a baby in 12 weeks time, and can barely walk around the house so am not really a 'job seeker'
You are right that I probably haven't been given the right advice or help though as it is ludicrous that they would leave me with no income whatsoever for so long given my circumstances.

Spendless

starlite wrote:

I wouldn't imagine I could claim jsa as I am having a baby in 12 weeks time, and can barely walk around the house so am not really a 'job seeker'
You are right that I probably haven't been given the right advice or help though as it is ludicrous that they would leave me with no income whatsoever for so long given my circumstances.

I got JSA when pregnant. It was contribution based though and I was in the early stages of pregnancy. Are you caught between not getting contribution based cos you haven't paid enough NI and not getting IS because you have a working partner. Also have you asked at CAB if there's anything you're entitled to that you're missing out on, or ring the maternity alliance. Haven't got any details but sure another kind member might post a website or number for you.

jellyhead

it was income support i got, 9 years ago it was. i was single though, living alone. rules might have changed since then so sorry if i'm talking rubbish lol! there should be something you can claim, unless you're living with a working partner in which case i suppose things are different (but in a good way, not that that helps with the finances!).

flikkerty

My mind is spinning with all this information! Just been told that maternity pay is out for me due to being off with hyperemisis for most of the pregnancy.. great of them to tell me this week when I usually get paid tomorrow. Husband is also considered part time with the O.U (even though full time)and earns about 12000 a year whilst he is doing it. I am expecting a phone call this afternoon to help sort out maternity allowance, just what you need at 35 weeks with a pickled brain and what feels like a ferret in your guts.
Sorry to moan on, but it helps!

Spendless

flikkerty wrote:

My mind is spinning with all this information! Just been told that maternity pay is out for me due to being off with hyperemisis for most of the pregnancy.. great of them to tell me this week when I usually get paid tomorrow. Husband is also considered part time with the O.U (even though full time)and earns about 12000 a year whilst he is doing it. I am expecting a phone call this afternoon to help sort out maternity allowance, just what you need at 35 weeks with a pickled brain and what feels like a ferret in your guts.
Sorry to moan on, but it helps!

To be eligible for MA you need to have worked 26 out of the 66 weeks before babys due date and earned at least £30 in those weeks, but they don't need to be consecutive weeks. I had to take my MATB1 to our social security offices (or whatrever they're called now) and got a form to fill in and post off. I had to do it before baby was born as I wasn't allowed much time after to do it. My daughter was born march 2003 so some info might be out of date, but good luck hope you get some pay.

flikkerty

Thank you for that, I have been working for the same company for 5 years fortunately so that means I should get a bit of help, it is only temporary until OH gets a better job. I just like to make sure that we have more coming in than going out, this website has been a godsend.

jellyhead

*HUGS* flikkerty! as long as you meet the conditions you will get MA for 26 weeks, it's 90% of the average of the best 13 weeks payslips (if you can't find them they will ask your employer and then write to you asking if you agree for them to use those particular weeks wages as the best ones, they did that with me), to a maximum of £106 per week. they took a couple of weeks to work out mine then they paid me 3 weeks money in a lump sum to begin with, it's paid weekly. in addition to the MATB1 from the midwife i also needed a form from work, SMP1 i think it was called, telling me why i couldn't get SMP. if you gave work your MATB1 then the SMP1 form is the one they'll have given you back, telling you you can't have SMP. there's a government website somewhere you can download the notes and application form from, in PDF so you need adobe acrobat to open it or you can call them and ask them to post you a form i suppose. once you've read all the terms and conditions and seen the form it will put your mind at rest that you are entitled to the MA and you can relax a bit.

not sure if your other half is working as well as studying etc. but you may also get tax credits. claim as soon as the baby is born and ask if you can claim the surestart grant of £500 too, you probably can't get it before baby is born but you have up to 3 months to claim it after the birth. not sure of the conditions of claiming tax credits before the birth but if your other half is working 30 hours or more and you're both over 25 it's worth looking at. if you're under 25 i believe you have to have a child before you can claim. don't quote me on that though, but the MA i claimed recently so i imagine the information given is up to date although nothing i say can be relied upon, i had my baby 2 weeks ago and my brain is made of jelly :rotfl:

Gingham_Ribbon

I've just emailed a nanny service that sends babysitters for £5 an hour. It would be out of the question full time, but it occurs to me that if I could cope for just the morning or afternoon and I could get help a couple of days a week from friends, and my mum managed to make the 4-5 hour round trip at least every week last time (what an amazing woman she is!) then perhaps I'd only need help maybe 7 or 8 hours a week.

If someone could come round, I wouldn't have the expense of getting a taxi with him back from the nursery and of course I might not be able to do it. So it might not be a bad option. If she was nice and bonded with my son, she might even take him out and do some of the things my son and I do at the moment, so his routine wouldn't be turned on its head.

I wonder what their reply will be. Maybe because I'd be there they would only send a nanny and that's way out of my league! My friend told me what she pays in nursery fees and I don't think it's feasible.

And if I have to have spells in hospital, he might like to have a little holiday at granny and grandpa's house... Looks like I might need to get some people on board!