29 weeks pregnant, newly single, help!

Amanda4242

I am as the title suggests 29 weeks pregnant and on saturday I had to make the difficult decision to tell my partner to leave after finding out he'd been cheating on me. I already have a 9 year old son and am claiming tax credits for him and have told tax credit people I am single so am making a single persons claim.

However, I want to know if I am entitled to claim for anything else. I've heard about a £500 maternity one off payment. I'm not sure I can claim?

Basically I work 26 hours a week and my salary before tax is roughly £12,400 a year. I've been told by tax credit people that they work out I should get £115 week, however I've just worked out online and it is working out at £68 week?????? that I'm entitled to. So I'm going to sort that out as I dont want overpaying!

So if any kind soul has any advice or any idea on anything else I can claimfor I would appreciate it

Stephb1986_2

aww hun sorry to hear of your break up im in the same boat i dumped my fella yesterday because he was a pig!

I dont have any advice but if you need to chat just pm me

take care look after yourself

Steph xxxx

Lunar_Eclipse

Amanda4242 wrote: »

I am as the title suggests 29 weeks pregnant and on saturday .....

Oh, you poor thing. I hope you're okay. No advice sorry, but wanted to say your strength in breaking up with him is admirable and ((((((( hugs ))))))) for when you need them. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy.

I'm also wondering why oh why do people do such things to others at times like this? Aaarrgghh!

tsstss7

Sorry to hear of your troubles Amanda, what a pig cheating on you!

I believe the benefits you can claim now are working tax credits, child tax credits, child benefit (which you will already be getting but goes up to around £30/wk when your baby is born). Also housing benefit and possibly council tax benefit if your income still falls below a certain level.

Once you go on maternity leave you will most likely (depending upon how long you have worked) be entitled to statutory maternity pay (SMP) or statutory maternity allowance (SMA) which is 116/week for 39 weeks or 90% of your normal pay depending upon which is lower (you may also be entitled to more depending upon your employers policy) this is regardless of whether you return to work after your maternity leave.

If you are still technically employed during this time you will stay on working tax credit, however this entitlement ceases if you are no longer a paid employee on maternity leave( say if you decide not to return to work after the maternity pay period and then go onto the horrors of income support!).

You are correct to state that you will be eligible for a sure start grant (which you are entitled to if you receive more than the most basic rate of child tax credit) and you may also be entitled to the healthy start vouchers (now £6/week for a baby under 1 £3 until age 5).

tsstss7

just wanted to add that wtc is worked out annually based on last years earnings normally, however if you are likely to be on a particularly low annual wage wtc may be calcualted on your estimate of this years income not counting stat. maternity benefits (SMA amount is not counted as income for WTC purposes ) which will bring your weekly amount up, this may be why the payment estimate from them seems high. I think an annual wage of less than 5000 (ISH) gives you max wtc as well as ctc for this year.

Penny_Watcher

You might find this website useful. You can fill in your personal circumstances and it gives you a breakdown of what you might be entitled to.

Entitled To

Wishing you all the very best at this difficult time.

RustyFlange

I had my daughter in May last year, I was working and I still qualified for the one off £500 maternity payment. It helped a great deal! If I were you I would get the forms asap and fill them in (get them signed by health visitor) as you can claim it from 29 weeks, normally takes a few weeks to precess before payment.

To be honest if your ex can do that to you when you are pregnant then you are better off without him, enjoy the rest of the time with your son, involve him in the pregnancy as much as you can and then when you have the baby I am sure he will love helping you out.

Good luck!

traveller

Hi I wish you the best of luck, as I too am in a similar situation.I was wondering do they count your salary only, when working out if your eligible for the one off maternity payment, or is it your wages plus your WTC payment.If it's only my wages I'm eligible,but if they include my WTC too ,I'm not IYSWIM.

vix89

if u recieve income support, or any sort of benefits you can apply for a sure start maternity grant, you can apply for 1 i think 11 weeks up too your due date which is your 29th week, up to your baby being 3 months old. i think how much you actually recieve off them depends on your income. but if you go into citzen advise they should be able to tell you more. i hope this helps!!

im really sorri about your break up, i broke up with the babys father just before i found out i was pregnant. hope you the best. good luck

jak

Have to used entitledto .com you put your details in and then it should tell you how much you'll get. With th etax credits it's likely to be a diff. rate while you're off on mat leave as you won't get working tax credit I don't think, just child tax credit. They should be able to tell you more. Ask them!
Good luck! And congratulations!
J
X

Js_Other_Half

This thread was started in April, but the OP said in May she was with her partner - fingers crossed they're making a go of it.