Maternity benefits

loop de loop

First time poster looking for info about maternity benefits. I am currently pregnant with baby no 2 and while I was paid by work on my first ( half work, half social welfare ), we are not paid from work for any future children. I am just wondering if the social welfare pay you any extra or just the same as they would if they were in a scheme with your employer ? Hope this makes sense thanks...

pwurple

Maternity benefit is not based on the number of children, or what your employer gives you. It's your tax credits.

Max is 260 per week. (edit, thanks lazygal!)

lazygal

Your entitlement to maternity benefit is totally separate from employment arrangements. I'm paid by work for all paid maternity leave for the duration of the maternity benefit scheme (26 weeks) but if I was only paid for the first child, I'd only receive the statutory payment. Social welfare rules are not connected to private employment contract payments.
Don't forget to ask for a balancing statement from Revenue at the end of the year, you may get a tax refund as you'll be paid less and using fewer credits.

lazygal

pwurple wrote: »

Maternity benefit is not based on the number of children, or what your employer gives you. It's your tax credits.

Max is 260 per month.

A week!

pwurple

lazygal wrote: »

A week!

Oops! Yes.

Oh, and forgot to say, it is taxed.

Merrilady

pwurple wrote: »

Oops! Yes.

Oh, and forgot to say, it is taxed.

:mad::mad:

red fraggle

how exactly is the 260 taxed? is it not too low to be taxed? confused. ive talked to my hr about it but dont get it. ill try again tho

Hannibal Smith

pwurple wrote: »

Oops! Yes.

Oh, and forgot to say, it is taxed.

Is that a new thing? Mine was never taxed? I think there was talk about taxing it, did they go through with it?

highly1111

It is too low to be taxed. I'm currently in receipt of €262.

any employer top up would be subject to tax if you were in receipt of it.

Neyite

I think it is assesed as taxable, but you dont necessarily get tax deducted.

Basically: If your employer does not top it up then you are below the threshold and dont pay tax.

But for those whose employer does top up, it used to be that the maternity benefit portion of your salary while on maternity was exempt, but they changed it a few budgets ago (?)

Say pre-birth you earn 500 per week. You pay tax where they take the full amount into consideration. Then you go on maternity leave. Your employer still pays you 500 per week, but SW are giving you 260 of that as MB and the other 240 is an employer top up.

Previously, you would have only been tax assessable during maternity leave on the 240 wage portion of your income, as the other 260 was exempt. So, not only did you get your usual wage, but you also paid less tax (and maybe even lower PRSI) so during your maternity, you had a few extra quid because of the less tax.

But then they changed it so that the full 240+260 = 500 is taxable. So you dont have a little tax windfall anymore.

But for those who dont get an employer top-up (and more and more employers are phasing out that top up all the time) it makes no difference, you get your 260 max a week for 16 weeks and nothing after that.

joasia1973

Neyite wrote: »

I think it is assesed as taxable, but you dont necessarily get tax deducted.


But for those who dont get an employer top-up (and more and more employers are phasing out that top up all the time) it makes no difference, you get your 260 max a week for 16 weeks and nothing after that.

26 weeks

Neyite

joasia1973 wrote: »

26 weeks

Yep you are right, 16 weeks was a typo.

PuddingHead

If there's less than 36 months between baba's I think you'd get the lower rate... ring buncrana, or email even, 1 business day is what you'll be waiting for a reply...

Maternity Benefit Section

Department of Social Protection
McCarter's Road
Ardaravan
Buncrana
Donegal
Ireland

Tel:(01) 471 5898
Locall:1890 690 690
Homepage: http://www.welfare.ie

Moonbeam

PuddingHead wrote: »

If there's less than 36 months between baba's I think you'd get the lower rate... ring buncrana, or email even, 1 business day is what you'll be waiting for a reply...

What lower rare ?
I have 24 months between each of mine and qualified for the highest rate each time as it is based on earnings.

highly1111

Moonbeam wrote: »

What lower rare ?
I have 24 months between each of mine and qualified for the highest rate each time as it is based on earnings.

Same here. I think you have to be earning SFA in order to qualify for a lower rate. Once you're earning anything decent you qualify for the higher rate.

PuddingHead

highly1111 wrote: »

Same here. I think you have to be earning SFA in order to qualify for a lower rate. Once you're earning anything decent you qualify for the higher rate.

Stupid phone wont let me log in...

My sis didn't qualify for the higher rate with her second because the was less than 36 months between em but she also took the unpaid leave so I think she hadn't enough tax credits built up between going on mat leave the first and second time

PuddingHead

Also lower rate is 217.80 pw

Moonbeam

PuddingHead wrote: »

Stupid phone wont let me log in...

My sis didn't qualify for the higher rate with her second because the was less than 36 months between em but she also took the unpaid leave so I think she hadn't enough tax credits built up between going on mat leave the first and second time

That doesn't make sense at all.
Maybe it was that she had not earned enough with her unpaid leave so that is why she got the lower rate.
It is supposed to be 70% of your earnings but it is capped at 260pw.
I took extended maternity leave in 09,11 and 13 and was on the highest rate all 3 times.

dricko_lim

Hi,

Does anyone know for the 39 weeks of work (previous 12 months) to get the full maternity benefit does this have to be full time work and not just part time?

My wife will only have the 39 weeks (just) completed once she goes on maternity leave as she was self employed before that for a period but the business didnt work out. So she's little prsi paid for the past few years in Ireland other than this 39 weeks as we were in Edinburgh before that(She was a student).

I ask as she may have an opportunity to work 20 hours a week instead of full time in a new job in her qualified area that she wants but is unsure if this will effect her ability to get the max maternity benefit? Trying to get through to the SW when working is impossible.

Thanks in advance!

Moonbeam

1st time I was full time,2nd I was on a 3 day week and 3rd I was self employed.
She will still qualify the same way that she would on a 39 hour week.

Sligo1

PuddingHead wrote: »

Stupid phone wont let me log in...

My sis didn't qualify for the higher rate with her second because the was less than 36 months between em but she also took the unpaid leave so I think she hadn't enough tax credits built up between going on mat leave the first and second time

Hey! I was only taking to my HR today and was asking about this! So this might be of some help to your sister. Was it normal unpaid leave she took or unpaid MATERNITY leave she took. If it was the unpaid mat leave she took this leave is protected leave and the social welfare cannot look at this as normal unpaid leave. But my HR department said you need to make the SW aware of this as they will treat It as normal unpaid leave for tax credits etc and therefore give you the lower rate of payment unless told otherwise. It may be of use to your sister to ring them and tell them... She may be entitled to some money back of they only gave her the lower rate because they were unaware it was unpaid mat leave she took. I wouldn't have known to alert SW of this had my HR department not warned me about it today!