No salary when on maternity leave - what benefits would we be eligible for?

lowdenclear

A wee bit of background info... I moved from Northern Ireland to the south and started a new job here just over 6 months ago when I got married. A month after that I found out I was pregnant! (I'm now 26 weeks) Basically, while I will be entitled to maternity benefit, I will not get any maternity pay from work as I will have been working in the company for less than a year. My husband is unemployed (he's looking for work and not on any benefits) so my salary is supporting us both and paying our rent and bills. The maternity benefit wouldn't even be enough to cover our rent!

I was wondering if anyone would have any advice for me regarding benefits? Would it be possible to claim rent allowance, given that while I will still officially be an employee, I will not actually be receiving any salary for the 26 weeks I am on maternity leave? Are there any other benefits (besides jobseekers for my husband) that either of us would be entitled to, given this information?

Thanks for your help! I'm still a little clueless about how everything works down here...

VeryBerry

Hi Lowdenclear,

sorry to hear things are so tough for you. Its hard having to worry about finances at the best of times, but especially hard when you're pregnant.

I'm in a somewhat similar situation to you. My baby is due in a few weeks, but I'm being let go from my job when I finish. So I won't have any salary either - only the state maternity benefit, which as you said, doesn't even cover the mortgage, not to mind other bills.

My husband isn't working either. He was made redunant atr Christmas, and has been looking for work since. Although he is entitiled to jobseekers allowance, so that helps a bit.

My advice is to go and talk to your community welfare officer, who will be able to tell you what you're entitlements are. We did this when my husband was let go, and found it very helpful. We couldn't claim for anything extra at that time, because I was still working. But he told us to come back to talk to him once my job finished, because there might be extras we could claim for while we're both not working. e.g. mortagage interest supplement.

I hope it all works out for you

lalalulu

Definitely go and speak to the welfare office in your local health centre/clinic i know that you can claim rent allowance when you are in receipt of jobseeker's allowance and one parent family payment not sure about maternity ben. You are working and you plan on going back to work after your maternity leave so i doubt you are eligable for rent allowance.

**Caroline**

Hi lowdenclear,

That's good advice above! Speak to the community welfare officer to find out if you are eligable for rent allowance as I'm not too sure about the in's and out's of it. Hopefully they can aid you in some way as I'm sure the rent/mortgage is where the bulk of the money goes!

Other than what you mentioned (i.e. maternity for you and jobseekers for your partner) I'm not aware of any other weekly-type payments available to you As far as I know, you will each get one weekly payment and that is it. Rent allowance and other supplimentary allowances are separate to these.

Depending on how much you earn, you may be entitled to some help for maternity clothing (think it's about €150 if you qualify). They also give a second payment nearer to the birth of the baby. Both of these come from the community welfare officer so mention them when enquiring about rent allowance.

Once baby arrives, you will get a monthly childrens allowance. Also, you might be eligable for some financial assistance towards the cost of a pram & cot. I'm not sure how much this is and again, I presume you must be earning under a certain wage bracket to qualify. (again, this should be sought from the community welfare officer who can let you know if you qualify).


You might get some more info on payments etc. on this website:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories (Citizens Information)

Unlike the social welfare, they seem to really want to help you out when you're having a tricky time financially and won't judge you or fob you off.
You should give them a call! I'm sure they could advise you further on your entitlements..

Hotais

:cool: http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/world/eyqlideyidmh/

looks like you'll get mandatory full pay soon.
:pac:

newmammy2011

Woohoo!
Hopefully that will come in soon!
Currently pregnant with twins and my job dont pay while on maternity leave!!!

Bigcheeze

If that is implemented and the employer has to pick up the bill, it would be a step backwards for female employment prospects.

wmpdd3

We were in same position as OP. When I went on maternity, we went to the SW office and asked to be re-means tested as OH was getting €35 per week when I was working.

We also went to the Community welfare officer as we were told there would be a delay in means testing us. The officer just laughed and basically told me I should have saved more money from my wages before I went on mat leave. No payment. No money for mat clothes! No buggy/ pram!

I had baby early.... went back in when baby was 1 week old, the girl who was covering the hatch had lost OH's file and all the documents we had given in. Had to complain to the supervisor who re-did everything again!

In the end we could claim for baby at €29 per week, fuel allowance at €20 per week and OH claimed for me as a Dependant as i was earning less than €300 per week. (waiting for them to work this out)

My advice is to go out the day you finish in work, bring your letter from maternity section saying how much you will be getting and ask to be assessed above.

Good luck.

implausible

Hotais wrote: »

:cool: http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/world/eyqlideyidmh/

looks like you'll get mandatory full pay soon.

While this is great news, I very much doubt it will be implemented in full any time soon. It will definitely be too late for the OP.