Help!!!!!! Shortfall on income on maternity leave

Dear All As we are going to try for a baby next year (please God) :wink: I came across something terrifying :shock: in the welfare website on maternity payments!!! Apparantly the maximum payment you can receive is €294/per week which works out at about €1,170 per month. As I am the main income in the house I pay the mortgage everymonth with my husband taking care of all other bills, loans etc. And if I was to get this allowance is would fall short of what my mortgage repayments are let alone my car loan, mobile bill etc. :cry: Can this, is this true? I read through my contract with work and it states they do not pay for maternity leave so I'll have to start bloody saving now to make sure I have the shortfall saved for. Just wanted to know what other peoples experience is of paid maternity leave, were you short on payments, did you employer come up with the shortfall etc. Any information/advice you could offer I would be grateful thank you :(

I know. This happened to my friend. Her work didn't pay her maternity leave so she had to claim the welfare maternity. The money is quite small, but she said that is where the husband comes in. For your case, when you have a child, you will have a cost of E130 to E150 a week, if you can't leave the child with your mother. This should be factored into your budget for mortgage & living expenses. When you are off work for the six months, your tax credits will build up. You will not have to pay tax when you go back to work for a few months. This should help a little. Could you not try to get a cheaper interest rate with your mortgage. Sometimes if you say you are taking your mortgage elsewhere, and if you have been a good customer, the bank might put you on a cheaper interest rate. There are also special cheaper mortgage rates for people who owe only 60% or less of the value of their house. This might help you if you have your house a few yrs, and the value has gone up. I know you can try to save some money to help with living expenses for the 6 months maternity leave, but I would be more concerned with the cost of childminding when the child is born. You would need to factor in the cost of E130 to E150 a week for childminding. Hope you work something out,

Not really worried about childminding when I get back to work as husband works shift work and is always off twice during the week so the maximum I would need childminder for is three days a week and I have factored that into my total monthly budget. Its really just while I am off work the shortfall is pretty substantial on what I earn, God you'd never have kids when you think about it really :roll: ! Will have to seriously think it over with the hubbie and come up with a plan of action as I have said the shortfall is really substantial :(

I could be wrong on this but unless you have your childminder decided on, I understand that some creches have the cheek of charging for full week/month regardless of the child only needing care for a couple of days that week - apparently based on the place in the creche as opposed to how much you decide to use it. If I'm wrong on this, I'd like to hear that!! Re Maternity benefit, I'm have a similar issue to deal with. Not only can we just barely get by with cutting back on plenty after the wedding, but I'm in a contract job. I'm applying for jobs but only seem to be offered contracts which is not condusive to trying for a baby. Not only do I have very little chance of finding an employer who just happens to make up the salary during maternity leave, but as most contracts are unlikely to last past any maternity leave, I won't even have the security of a job to go back to. And imagine sitting in an interview mentioning that you're just coming back from having a baby - not exactly a break in service that I want highlighted in my cv for every interview herein after!!! There really is so much to consider in having a baby .... other than actually having a baby!!! :roll:

I'm exactly the same girls. I'd love nothing more than having a baby but at the moment we can't even think about. I found out recently too that this company does not make any contributions towards maternity leave and the thoughts of living on what the social welfare pay is quite scarey. Hubby is in quite a good job but is only there 4 months and has not yet been made permanent (fingers crossed he will be) Like you Lucy the shortfall when you add up Hubby salary & the socials meger offerings are quite substantial & in order to pay the mortgage & all the bills we would have to save for a few months before we even start trying & then of course you've all the little bits like prams & cots to buy. There are a couple of girls in here at the minute in key positions that might at some stage be thinking of starting a family so HR are currently putting a report together to try to get the management to re-consider & set up some sort of maternity package. Hopefully if Hubby is mad permanent & gets a promotion we'll be able to try then..... So, don't really have any advise but wanted to let you know I feel exactly the same. I think saving a few Euro's is the only way....

Hey I would have been in a similar situation been the main breadwinner, however, I came to an arrangement that my company would recieve the maternity benefit and they would continue paying me a basic wage, I guess I was lucky. I ended up been on maternity leave for 6mths as our lil girl Eabha was born 3 month premature whilst we were on holiday in New york,hence my user name. But we're all back home safe and sound and Eabha is thriving. Hope it all goes well for you.

Well girls I am absoutely gutted :cry: just found out from a girl who I used to work who had a baby while she was working for the same company (she did leave got a job nearer to home) that she wasn't paid at all from our company, I can't tell you my disappointment :cry: it really means now that we won't be trying for a baby for at least another year or until we can get €8,000 saved between the two of us :cry: I just feel so cheated by my employer and the state I mean I am being punished for wanting to have a baby yeah the government says your boss has to give you the time off but doesn't have to pay you I mean where is the sense in this day and age I am sure most people need to incomes to survive let alone bring another person into the equation its just so frustrating and especially when in some cases the woman can now be the main earner in the house..... really can't go on just gutted, gutted, gutted.... :cry: :cry: :cry:

I don't pay PRSI as i am the bosses daughter, and i work for both my parents in an insurance brokerage which i will be taking over eventually, so there is no point in me pying PRSI as if i was to take maternity leave i wouldn't be able to go for as long as i wud be the boss!! since gettin hitched i have been really thinkin bout havin a baby comin off pill on 12th Oct;. Does all that mean that wen i do go soon hopefully that my employer (parents) will keep payin my wages. i don't really want to ask them as then they will know our plans!!