money and allowances ect

[Blueclass]

Hi all this is my first and have a few questions about how some people manage to take a year of? I will stop receiving smp at 9 months but wanted to take a year of. How do you pay your bills if you have no income? Is it a case of saving before hand? Also I know I can get child benefit once she arrives but is there anything else you can claim in those remaining months. My husband and I both work but due to our out goings he wouldn't be able to pay for everything. Does anyone know if you are able to get housing benefit once your money drops? Iv tried looking on line but I get so confused
Seems so unfair we have both worked since 14, he served our country and yet it seems we wouldn't get any help.

 

[caseysmummy11]

I think it's a matter of saving beforehand tbh hun. You may be entitled to child tax credits once baby arrives but it depends on how much you and your partner earned in the last tax year. We didn't get very much for our son even when it was just my partner working though. Try going on entitled to.com it may tell you what your eligible for xxx

 

[Chrissi]

Hi blueclass. I'm taking a year off, but I'm lucky enough to get enhanced pay, but that means my pay will drop to 270pm! We've just chopped in my car on finance to get an older car and I'm saving all child benefit to cover us the last three months. You're right it's unfair that people like us that have always put in get nothing out! It drives me nuts the politics of it all. We've also been saving like mad to get our wedding paid off! X

 

[Maud]

I took a year off last time and am doing the same this time. We just had to adjust to living on my OH's salary alone. We knew that we would have to do that before we got pregnant, although the drop in available money was still quite an adjustment, especially the last 3 months. We had expected childcare to take nearly all of my salary on return to work or I was going to be a SAHM so knew we had to learn to live on one income long term. In the end our childcare bill was smaller than expected and I got a pay rise (which together mean we can afford this baby!) but we have been saving all of my salary other than nursery fees so we won't have to make any adjustments this time around when it stops again.

It's not easy and I wish they would pay smp for the full leave entitlement, but I am a planner and did all sorts of spreadsheets and research on money-saving measures to help us cope eg we swapped from tesco to lidl for a lot of our shopping, cut back on luxuries and bulk buy things on offer. I could never see how it would work out but in the end it just did. I used to hate people saying that to me but it turned out to be true!

 

[Blueclass]

Thanks guys. I'm going to see what I can do to earn a bit of money in the last 3 months. I could maybe go back to work part time say 2 or 3 days. Or see if there's something I can do from home. I think you should get smp for the time you have of. Other European countries get up to 3 years.

 

[jem8789]

Thanks guys. I'm going to see what I can do to earn a bit of money in the last 3 months. I could maybe go back to work part time say 2 or 3 days. Or see if there's something I can do from home. I think you should get smp for the time you have of. Other European countries get up to 3 years.

I'm not entirely sure where you've got that information from; just from 5 minutes on google, i can see there are no countries that offer more than a year on any percentage of a mother's wage. Most have some form of percentage/cap, and then some weeks of unpaid leave, regardless of how long they offer the mother to be away from work. Very few offer more than 6 months in fact. It's a choice to be out of the workplace for that long, and a luxury many can't afford.

It also largely depends on where you work as companies will have their own maternity leave and pay policies. I'm lucky that my company subsidise my SMP for the first 14 weeks of my leave, so I receive full pay for 3.5 months before going down to SMP. We're saving every spare penny to make life easier and help pay for childcare so I can go back to work part time to begin with

 

[Maaaaaac]

Im completely stuck money wiseim main income earner at the minute and my conpany only has smp. Gonna have to move house to try and save cash. So stressed and its only the beginning!

 

[MummyEdgar]

I don't know how people do it, I'm the main bread winner in my family and run my own business, I will claim smp for 3 months and then have to go back to work, I would love to work somewhere that pays maternity leave for a number of months , not a choice for me despite my hubby serving his community his wage doesn't reflect that and we couldn't exist on it alone, even thou we live with my parents!

 

[scaredmummy]

I'm very lucky that I work for the NHS as a secretary. I would like to have taken 12 months off but for the last 3 months I don't get any pay and unfortunately cannot afford to do that so as my leave year is April to March I am hopefully going to tag 6 weeks 3 days leave onto the end of my maternity leave so will be off for a total of 10 1/2 months.

I will get 8 weeks at full pay, 18 weeks at half pay plus sma of £139.58 and the last 13 weeks will be sma only, the other half will hopefully be doing some overtime to cover my reduction for the last 13 weeks on sma and hopefully I may get some extra child tax credit.

With my first born 10 years go I was only off for 6 months.

 

[MummyEdgar]

That sounded very wingy! Lol didn't mean it to sound like that, my life and my choice for us to have this baby and we will make it work, would just be lovely not to have to worry about money

 

[scaredmummy]

That sounded very wingy! Lol didn't mean it to sound like that, my life and my choice for us to have this baby and we will make it work, would just be lovely not to have to worry about money

I think we would all love not to worry about money, just had to pay a fortune out for a roofing repair that needed doing, the money we had to pay out would have covered me for more time off, savings soon dwindle and now not much left in the pot.

 

[Blueclass]

I think il be lucky if I can afford to take 9 months. I'm lucky in that I get 90%for 6 weeks then 12 weeks half pay plus smp then so many weeks just smp. It could be worse. Just think it's disgusting that we work our arses of and it's the only one time I would ask for a little help. No disrespect to anyone on benefits I appreciate it's hard for everyone but I don't claim for anything and pay our taxes. It's so annoying and the politics are crap. Sorry rant over!
We have looked at moving but the initial cost of moving is alot and we would need to move completely out of London. My OH would need to transfer which takes time. Also I would then have to pay child care whilst living here I don't as my mum will have the baby.
Think il just have to get used to the idea of only having a 9 months of.

 

[Cherrybelly]

My work give 18w full pay and then SMP. I only took 18w off with my daughter and then did my ten kit days, one day a week to top up my stat pay. It meant I went back properly when she was six months old. It was hard, but at the time it was all I could afford. With number two, we're saving up so I can take nine months off x

 

[Blueclass]

Yeah it feels sad going back so early. I will try for 9 months but it means from now till then every spare penny needs to be saved, not that I have many of those lol.

 

[El1en]

I totally agree with you blueclass, it sucks for hard working people that they can't take a little extra time to look after their families even though they've paid taxes all their lives. I think if the government is happy for a woman to take a year then they should receive smp for a year.

I planned to take a year off but have since decided not to go back. Money will be super tight for us but I will be helping my oh on our farm. I got my last smp in December and currently have £700 in my bank. I tried to save when pregnant and during my leave so that I could go as long as possible without asking oh for extra. Things are going to be super tight next month hopefully we can get some sort of tax credit.

 

[russellmuscle]

I'm very lucky that I work for the NHS as a secretary. I would like to have taken 12 months off but for the last 3 months I don't get any pay and unfortunately cannot afford to do that so as my leave year is April to March I am hopefully going to tag 6 weeks 3 days leave onto the end of my maternity leave so will be off for a total of 10 1/2 months.

I will get 8 weeks at full pay, 18 weeks at half pay plus sma of £139.58 and the last 13 weeks will be sma only, the other half will hopefully be doing some overtime to cover my reduction for the last 13 weeks on sma and hopefully I may get some extra child tax credit.

With my first born 10 years go I was only off for 6 months.

Im an NHS seccy too.

The parental leave is a huge help too.

Im quite grateful of the nhs mat pack.

Im unsure how long Ill take off perhaps 9m and drop some hours on return.

xxxx

 

[Blueclass]

Hope you get something. I agree why allow a year if they won't help you for that time? X