council tax benefits and maternity pay

stazi

Ring your JCP Benefit Centre on Mon, explain your situation to the MA new claims section, and ask when your claim is likley to be decided.

Dizie

Hi, congratulations on your new baby!

Apparently, there is a 2 month to 2.5 months backlog in dealing with maternity allowance claims at the moment. I put my claim in for MA on 7th April and when I spoke to them (again) last week, I was told that they were just starting to look at claims received at the beginning of April. I too am getting rather concerned as although they say they'll back pay (assuming that my claim is OK, which I think it is...!) I could really do with the money now - the back pay will be nearly £1000 at this rate!

I've got the phone number for the maternity allowance claim team, but can't just lay my hands on it - will update this post when I find it. Might be worth giving them a call just to make sure that you are in the pile as it were. My baby is being delivered on Monday next week, and am really hoping I get a positive answer from them before then.... please....!

Edit - here you go, 3 phone numbers for the Maternity Allowance team. Sadly, there is no hunt group so its a case of trying each number until someone bothers to answer...

01782 426044
01782 426042
01782 426037

Good luck!

Lip_Stick

Have you applied for the Sure Start grant? That's for £500 so should help you a bit if you haven't had it already. You can claim upto 3 months after the baby is born.