For the purposes of this page, we’ll take full-time as being 24 hours a week or more. If your partner works less than 24 hours a week things can get quite complicated and I recommend that you seek further advice.

Because your partner works 24 or more hours a week you are not going to be entitled to Income Support. However there are some things you are entitled to, and other things you might be entitled to.

Child Benefit

• To get this, you need to have a child. Not very surprising, I know, but this means that you cannot get this until the baby is actually born.
• It’s the key benefit, because you need it to show the other benefits offices that you have a child.
• Unless your annual income (not including your partner’s) is more than £50,000, the amount you get is fixed: everyone gets the same. The current weekly amount is £20.70 for your first child (you get an extra £13.70 for each other child): this means, for example, that if you’ve just had twins you’ll be entitled to £34.40 per week.
• You claim it from part of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC for short) called the Child Benefit Office.
• You may get a claim form with the ‘bounty pack’ you’re given after the baby is born, but if you don’t you can either claim it online or by phoning the Child Benefit Helpline on 0300 200 3100.

Tax Credits

• Child Tax Credit: again, to get this you need to have a child. Normally getting Child Benefit should be enough to show this.
• Working Tax Credit: to get this your partner (or both of you together) needs to be in what the government call ‘full time work’: for a couple with children this means at least 24 hours per week.
• Tax Credits are administered by part of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs called the Tax Credit Office. Unlike Child Benefit, however, they also feel rather like a ‘tax-y’ sort of things. So when you claim them, they initially work out how much they expect you to be entitled to for the rest of the tax year, and then divide that into weekly chunks, and then check things again after the end of the tax year. One result of this is although I have given weekly amounts below, these are approximate, unlike the amounts I give for other benefits.
• This is where it gets a little bit complicated…
• The amount of Child Tax Credit you get depends on how many children you have, what other money you have coming in, and whether any of your children are disabled.
• The amount of Working Tax Credit you get depends on whether your partner (normally) works 30 hours or more per week, and what other money you both have coming in (in your case, this is probably your partner’s earnings).
• If you have savings, the interest on the savings counts as income: the savings themselves don’t affect the calculation.
• If your gross annual income between you is less than £6,420 per year (roughly £535 per month, or £123 per week), it doesn’t affect the amounts of tax credits that you get.
• If your gross annual income between you is more than £6,420 per year, your tax credits are reduced by 41p for every £1 above £6,420. They start by reducing your Working Tax Credit, and if that all gets ‘used up’ they then reduced your Child Tax Credit.
• Now, you need to remember here that the Tax Credit Office works things out on an annual basis. This means that initially the figure they use for your annual income is the income you received in the previous full tax year, not the amount you’re actually getting at the moment (your maternity pay).
• Let’s look at a fairly simple example to give you an idea of how things pan out…

If you want to get your tax credit calculations exactly right, you need to take into account of the fact that yearly amounts are scaled down to daily amounts, rounded up to the nearest whole penny, and they scaled up again. To make things easier to understand I ignore this complication in this website. The difference, in my opinion, is to small to be worth worrying about: for example, for a family with two non-disabled children the difference would be £1.00 over a whole year. However if you use my approach and your answers don’t exactly match the ones in the Tax Credit Office letters, this is why.

Fatima’s husband, Khalid, works 29 hours a week. They are both 30 years old. Both of them and the baby are in good health and not disabled. Khalid normally earns £261 per week gross, which works out as £13,609 per year. He’s been in his current job for a couple of years. As Khalid is working less than 30 hours per week, they would not be entitled to Working Tax Credit until the baby was born. They would initially receive about £64 Child Tax Credit and £20 Working Tax Credit, based on her previous year’s income. This might well be revised upwards later as her actual income will almost certainly less than normal due to being on maternity leave. (The calculation: Maximum Child Tax Credit Annual entitlement: £545 (family element) + £2,780 (child element) = £3,325 Maximum Working Tax Credit annual entitlement: £1,960 (basic element) + £2,010 (couple element) = £3,970 Annual Gross Income minus £6,420 = £7,189 41% of £7,189 is about £2,948. We now need to reduce the maximum tax credits amounts by this figure. This reduces the Working Tax Credit entitlement award to £1,022 (£3,970 minus £2,948): the Child Tax Credit isn’t reduced at all so is still £3,325 By dividing these by 365 and multiplying them by 7 we see how these figures look as weekly amounts: about £64 Child Tax Credit and about £20 Working Tax Credit)   Remember that this is an initial assessment, and may change if their family income changes.

Two things have changed from 6th April 2017: Any new claims for Child Tax Credit made from this date will not include the £545 family element; There will be no extra child elements for any third or further children born after this date , whether the claim started after this date or not, unless the child was born as the result of rape, or what the government calls 'non-consensual conception'. How this will work in practice remains to be seen.

Sure Start Maternity Grant

• This is different from the others, as it’s a one off payment: you are normally only entitled to it once, when you have your first baby.
• You can apply for it from 11 weeks before the baby is due to three months after the baby is born (this is the date the baby is actually born, not the date they were supposed to arrive). Do not leave it too late: if the Jobcentre Plus get it after three months after the baby’s born you will definitely not get a grant.
• You can’t get it unless you are also getting one of a list of other benefits: in your case, the ones I need to mention are Income Support and income-based Jobseeker's Allowance.
• You get £500: neither more nor less.
• To claim it you need to get hold of a SF100 form, either online or via the Jobcentre Plus.

Housing Benefit

• This is money to help towards your rent. Obviously you need to be renting somewhere first, so if, for example, you are temporarily living with friends or relatives, this won’t apply.
• The amount you are paid depends on your income and capital as a couple, but also on whether you have children or not. This means that even if you were not entitled to Housing Benefit before you might be entitled now.
• It is paid by your local authority (council).
• If you want more information about Housing Benefit, click here.

Council Tax Support

• This is money to help pay your Council Tax. Again, if you’re just staying with friends or relatives, this won’t apply.
• The amount you are paid depends on your income and capital as a couple, but also on whether you have children or not. This means that even if you were not entitled to Housing Benefit before you might be entitled now.
• It is paid by your local authority (council).
• If you want more information about Council Tax Support, click here.

When to claim what…

• Claim Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support when your normal earnings stop (unless you’re not renting anyway yet. If you’re not entitled then try claiming it again when your baby is born. If you do get awarded it before your baby is born still tell them when this happens, as you may be entitled to more.
• As soon as you can after the baby is born claim Child Benefit and Child and Working Tax Credit. You don’t need to do it immediately, but it’s sensible to claim it these in the first month. This is because you can get Child Tax Credit backdated, but only up to a month.
• Claim the Sure Start Maternity Grant next. Ideally, wait until you know that you’ve been awarded Income Support before doing this, but if the due date is approaching and they still haven’t made a decision, claim anyway.

If you are getting close to the three month time limit and still haven’t received a Child Tax Credit award, make a claim for it anyway before the three months runs out. If this is refused don’t worry: just wait until you are awarded Child Tax Credit, and then make another claim for the grant within three months of this. This only works if you’ve made a first claim for the grant within three months of the baby being born.

The Tax Credit Office will ask you for your Child Benefit Number, which you won’t have at this stage, but don’t worry about this. Just make sure you tell the Tax Credit Office when you get given a Child Benefit number.

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