Pregnancy and benefit entitlements

[niki2002]

I have just found out that my sister is having her first baby. We are all very excited and happy for her but I am starting to worry about how she will cope financially.

She is 21 and her bf is 28. They live together in a nice little flat and he is in a stable, but not very well paid job.

She works in the local shop and has done for a few years, but this is not strictly "legit". This means she wont get maternity pay or leave. (She doesnt even get holiday pay)

My question is what is the best advice I can give her about what to do so she wont have to worry too much?

Thanks in advance for any help

[bednobs]

i dont understand how people get incapacity benefit when they are just pregnant, not incapacitated?

[redcrx]

because they are not meant to be able to work for 2 weeks after the birth bednobs. Its law that you cannot return to work within 2 weeks of giving birth. And rightly so, or Id never get any holidays :)

yes niki, the benefits system is a complete joke. Too many people get clued up on what they get from the system so that they dont have to work (they really dont want to bother) and the ones who genuinely need help have to jump though hoops to get it.

[bednobs]

does that mean you have to fill in all those forms just for 2 weeks of benefit?

[redcrx]

ive no idea bednobs, ive never needed to claim it. Im just gratefull i get a fortnight off work lol

[warpig3]

Bednobs - basically I was told I shouldnt be getting JSA from the 29 week of pregnancy. They wouldn't give me incap benefit so I had to continue with JSA (even though the likelyhood of being employed by someone was slim). As it stands I will get Inc benefit for approx 6 weeks (depending on when baby is born) then have to reapply for Incap benefit or JSA two weeks after the birth, The difference between JSA and Incap benefit (for me) works out at an extra �1.80 per week, then the whole procedure has to be gone through again. If I recall rightly from my local government days the cost of assessing a housing benefit claim is around �100 and I would assume it is something similar for any benefit claim. Personally I find it difficult to justify the cost of assessing the same information repeatedly for such a short period of time and such a small amount of cash, but I assume this is to eliminate persons making fraudulent claims, c'est la vie.