Benefits Advice Please for Pregnant Friend + Student Partner

Ms_Chocaholic

Hi

I wonder if anyone would be kind enough to offer me some advice on benefits entitlements. My friend has asked me to post on here for some advice, I’ve tried looking on the internet but can’t make head nor tail of entitlements having not claimed any benefits myself for well over 20 years.

My friend (Lisa) is pregnant, baby is due towards the end of July. She is currently living with her parents. Her partner (Tom) is a student (University) and currently lives in a shared house with friends, that tenancy is due to end in early July.

They are trying to get a LA property together but to no avail as yet so are seriously thinking of renting privately (Lisa’s parents are unlikely to throw her out but they want to get a place together). Lisa did work part-time but gave up fairly early due to the type of work and is currently in receipt of maternity pay at £96 odd per week. Tom receives student loans etc and also works but I’m not 100% sure of the number of hours or wage/salary he receives and I understand the number of hours he work can differ each week.

My questions are:

What would Lisa be entitled to at the moment, whilst she is living at her parents home – I understood that maternity pay was something like £117 pw so can’t understand why she only receives £96 ish, but is that because she only worked part-time. Is she entitled to anything else, ie Income Support etc etc.

Will Lisa be entitled to a Sure Start grant to help her with the costs of when the baby arrives.

If they do rent privately before the baby arrives, what Housing Benefit are they likely to be entitled to and will this increase once the baby arrives?

When they move in together, is there a maximum number of hours that Tom can work and they can still receive Income Support and where does WFTC kick in.

Sorry for all the questions – I’m hoping these will make sense to someone and I can get some help. If possible, I would prefer answers in terms of benefit entitlements rather than links to other websites, I’ve tried entitledto but I couldn’t find the info I needed as I don’t really understand.

Thank you.

Ms C

alison999

aas far as i know you pay tax on mat pay, so thats probably why its a little less has she been to cab?

Ms_Chocaholic

No they intend ringing up this week to get an appointment (not sure if you can just turn up or you need an appointment).

I wanted to get a bit of info for them though before they went to give them some idea of what questions to ask etc so any info anyone can give would be much appreciated.

tom9980

When they live together.

Student loans count as income they do disregard some though for various expenses and since she also gets £96 and he works i doubt they will get much IS if any when its all added up. I dont know the latest figures but a couple need about £92ish per week to live off by law her maternity is already more than that.

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Partners/Allowancesandbenefits/Dev_010127.xml.html

read the whole page very carefully its gets very complicated so much so ive had decision makers contradict each other

Although they only count student loans for 42 weeks of the year the other 10 weeks they get the max they are entitled to as a couple. Not sure ive helped that much but i can tell you they are already much better off than me and my partner. CAB will help so they know for sure!

Good luck to them it wont be easy it was a huge hassle when i did this with my partner 18 months ago.