Finances once baby has arrived

[Kaiden]

Hello, I am expecting my first child next year and am currently a student (third year, university). I graduate in April/May and the baby is due shortly after. I doubt I will be able to get into work for a a fair while so I will be unemployed.

I am with my partner who is employed so we are not worried about the costs of supporting the baby, just my own personal living costs.

I hope to get housing benefit (although it does not cover it all) for a while until I get work. For the period that I'll be unemployed for, what else will I be entitled too to help out with living costs? As it's my first baby I am unsure what I'm able to get. As I won't be looking for work for a while, job seekers is clearly out of the question.

Any help is much appreciated

Thank you.

 

[steffy]

Hi, I had my lg 4 months after qualifying as a nurse and didn't get a job whilst pregnant so was unemployed. I couldn't get any benefit before she was born as my partner earnt over the threshold for working tax credit and I had not paid National Insurance contributions whilst at uni. If your partner is on a low wage you may qualify for working tax credit and the surestart maternity grant (if this is still around).
In our case, we had to wait until she was born to get Child Tax Credits and Child Benefit and as our child tax was quite high (£53 a week) we qualified for the surestart grant which you can get for a period after baby is born. Hope this helps. We managed fine and I went to work when she was 9 months old for choice not because we needed me to xx