This Factsheet Is Designed to Be a Quick Guide to the Things That New Parents Ask Us About

April 2015 Useful advice for parents

This factsheet is designed to be a quick guide to the things that new parents ask us about the most. What your rights actually are can be complicated, so get more advice, especially if you work but are not an employee (like an agency worker) or if you are not a UK citizen.

Introduction

In this leaflet we explain some of the things that you can claim to help with the costs of bringing up a child, as well as some of your rights at work when you or your partner is having a baby, and your right to ask for flexible working when you have children. This factsheet has basic information on benefits, rights at work and flexible working. There is much more information and tools to help you work out what is best for your family at www.workingfamilies.org.uk

Sure Start Maternity Grant This is a one-off payment of £500 to help you with the costs of a new child. You can usually only get it if you do not have other children under 16. You can only get it if you are getting a “qualifying benefit”. The benefits are:  Income Support  income-related Employment and Support Allowance  income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance  Child Tax Credit of more than the family element - which is worth about £10.50 per week  Working Tax Credit with a disability or severe disability element (see www.gov.uk for a list of tax credit elements)  Pension Credit  Universal Credit (currently any UC is a ‘qualifying benefit’, but the conditions may become more specific in the future).

www.workingfamilies.org.uk 1 Free Legal Helpline 0300 012 0312 April 2015 Useful advice for parents

You cannot usually get a grant if you have other children under 16. However:

 If you have a multiple birth, you can claim for all your babies as long as you do not have other children under 16  if you already have a child and then have twins, you can get one grant for the second twin

 if you are claiming because the parent of the baby is under 20, you can get a grant even if you have other children under 16 (but not if the young parent has other children who live with you)  if the only other child(ren) under 16 who live with you have a parent under 20, you can still claim a grant (for example, if your youngest child is 17, s/he and her children live with you and you are pregnant).

You must also make the claim within the time limits. If you are not sure whether you are getting or will get a qualifying benefit, you should claim anyway to make sure you are within the time limit. The earliest you can claim is 11 weeks before the week the baby is due (if you are getting a qualifying benefit), and you must claim before the baby is three months old. You may need to claim again when you have confirmation of a qualifying benefit or tax credits at a high enough level, but you must make your first claim within three months of your baby’s birth. Because tax credits are based on the previous tax year’s income, you may need to get your tax credit award revised, based on the current tax year’s income, to show that you are entitled to the grant. If you are not sure about what your income will be, you should get advice, as there is a risk of overpayment of tax credits if you give the Tax Credit Office a figure which turns out to be too low. You claim the Sure Start Maternity Grant from Jobcentre Plus.

Healthy Start vouchers Some people on low incomes can get Healthy Start vouchers whilst they are pregnant or they have a child under 4. The vouchers can be used towards the cost of milk, vegetables and fruit (or infant formula after you have had your baby).

The vouchers are worth £3.10 a week. You get one voucher for being pregnant, two vouchers for each under one and one voucher for each child is between 1 and 4.

If you are pregnant and under 18, you do not need to be on any benefits to qualify for Healthy Start vouchers. Otherwise, you (or someone who claims for you) must be on:  Income Support  Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance  Income-related Employment and Support Allowance  Child Tax Credit based on an income of less than £16,190, and you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit. You may be entitled if you or your partner are on Universal Credit but you will need to ring the Healthy Start issuing unit to find out. You can get a form to claim Healthy Start vouchers from doctors’ surgeries and maternity clinics or by ringing 0845 607 6823. You will need to get the form signed by a health professional like your midwife or health visitor.

Child Benefit Most families with children can claim Child Benefit. It does not matter how much money you have, and you do not need to be working or have paid national insurance contributions. However, if you or a partner you live with earns more than £50,000, that person may have to pay some or all of the Child Benefit back via a tax charge. You should think carefully about what to do in this situation as claiming Child Benefit may protect your national insurance record. There is more information about this on the website www.gov.uk.

You may not be able to get Child Benefit if you, or your child, do not meet the conditions about immigration status and residence in the UK. If you are not sure whether you can claim Child Benefit, you should get advice If you have the baby in a hospital, you will get the Child Benefit claim form in your Bounty Pack. Otherwise, you can find the claim form on the site www.gov.uk, but you will still need to print it off to send it to the Child Benefit Office. Or you can ring the Child Benefit helpline, 0300 200 3100. You should try to claim Child Benefit within three months of your baby’s birth to make sure you get all the money you are entitled to.

Tax credits for families There are two tax credits, Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Working Tax Credit (WTC).

CTC is an income-related payment for people with children – whether you get it, and how much, depends on your income. WTC is designed to top up a working household’s income and can give some help with childcare costs. It is also income-related and usually only paid to families on low incomes. WTC and CTC are both administered by the Tax Credit Office, part of the Revenue (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or HMRC).

You may qualify for just Child Tax Credit, just Working Tax Credit, both together, or neither, but both use the same form, they are calculated together, and an application for one is an application for both.

Single people must claim on their own whereas couples who live together must claim as a couple, with both their incomes taken into account.

Your Tax Credit award is worked out by calculating a maximum possible award for your circumstances, made up of all the elements you are eligible for. This can include an amount for childcare costs (part of Working Tax Credit). Only registered childcare counts and the maximum amount you can get is 70 per cent of your childcare costs up to a maximum amount. The most your childcare element can be is £122.50 per week for one child or £210 for 2 or more. If you have a disabled child on Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment, make sure HMRC know as this will give you more in Child Tax Credit.

Your income is then worked out, and the maximum award is reduced to give the amount you are entitled to receive. There is more information on how tax credits are worked out on the website www.gov.uk).

To claim tax credits call the Revenue’s Tax Credit Helpline on 0345 300 3900. Make sure you claim within one month of the birth of a new baby to make sure you get all the money you are entitled to. If you claim later on, you can ask for up to one month’s money for the period before you claim, if you were eligible during this time.

Help with rent and council tax

You may be entitled to Housing Benefit to help pay the rent. If you already get Housing Benefit, the amount you are entitled to may change when you have children or are on maternity leave. You can claim Housing Benefit from your local authority. Your local authority (council) also has a scheme to help with the council tax, called council tax reduction or council tax support, but it may not cover you or may only give you partial help. You should contact your council for more information.

Additional benefits for disabled children

If you have a disabled child under 16, you may be able to claim Disability Living Allowance (DLA) because they need extra care or have mobility problems. You should get advice about claiming, for example from a Citizens Advice Bureau. If you have children on DLA, you may be entitled to additional amounts of tax credits, so make sure the Tax Credit Office know. If your child is over 16 when they first claim, they will need to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP). This can also give you extra amounts of tax credits if you still get Child Benefit for the disabled young person.

In some areas, if your child is already on DLA when they reach 16 they will have to claim PIP, but in the rest of the country they would need to claim DLA for an adult. You can get more advice about this from Contact a Family.

The benefit cap

Some benefit claimants can only receive a certain amount of benefits per week: £500 for families and £350 for single people without children. The cap doesn’t apply to people on WTC, or to any families where an adult or a child you claim for gets DLA, PIP, Attendance Allowance, the support component of Employment and Support Allowance or Universal Credit with a limited capability for work-related activity component. It may also not apply if you have left work recently. Statutory Maternity Pay isn’t included in the cap, but most other benefits, including Maternity Allowance and Child Benefit, are included. There is more information on the www.gov.uk website.

Rights at work Health and Safety for pregnant employees Pregnancy itself is not an illness, but it can affect the things you can do. Employers who employ women of childbearing age have a duty to do a “general” health and safety assessment to identify risks to pregnant women. As soon as your employer has been informed in writing that you are pregnant (this can include a sicknote for pregnancy-related illness), and there is evidence of risk, a personal health and safety assessment must be done for you. As every pregnancy is different, the assessment should be done in conjunction with you. It may be helpful to ask your doctor for evidence that there are potential risks to you or your unborn baby from your work.

Once the risks have been identified, they must be eliminated if possible. You must be given information on the identified risk and what is going to be done about it. It may be that reducing your time at work would remove or reduce the risk; if so, your hours of work should be temporarily changed, if reasonable (if your hours are reduced, your pay should remain the same, so you should be paid for your normal working hours).

If no adjustment or change to working hours will help, then you should be offered a suitable alternative job on similar terms and conditions, which is reasonable for you to do. Whether or not the alternative is reasonable for you to do depends on the type of work, the rate of pay, the hours and times of work and the location of the work.

Of course the alternative job must be safe for you to do. If there is no reasonable alternative job, or no safe job, you must be suspended on full pay so long as the risk remains. This is not sick leave, and should not be counted as such.

Because what is safe may change during your pregnancy, your employer may be obliged to carry out another risk assessment later on, to check if any new risks have arisen and your job needs to be altered further. Note that special rules apply for pregnant night workers.

Time off for ante-natal care for employees Employees have the right to reasonable paid time off work for ante-natal appointments, which includes the time spent travelling to an appointment and waiting. You cannot be refused time off for the first appointment, but for subsequent appointments your employer can ask for written proof of the appointment and a certificate or note from your doctor or midwife, stating that you are pregnant. If you do not, when asked, provide these, your employer can refuse the time off. This is the only circumstance in which employers can refuse time off. They cannot ask you to make appointments in your own time, or make the time up later. An ante-natal appointment is any appointment you make on the advice of your doctor, midwife or health visitor, so it can sometimes include activities such as parentcraft and relaxation classes. It is unlawful for an employer to refuse reasonable time off, to refuse pay for the time off, to dismiss a woman or to treat her less favourably because she has taken time off.

Dads and co-habiting partners now have the right to attend up to two ante- natal appointments for a maximum of 6.5 hours on each occasion, on an unpaid basis.

Maternity leave and Pay All employed women are entitled to 52 weeks maternity leave. You should give your employer written notice of when you want to take it, by the end of the 15th week before your baby is due (about 25 weeks’ pregnant). Most women who are employed or agency workers will be able to get Statutory www.workingfamilies.org.uk 9 Free Legal Helpline 0300 012 0312 April 2015 Useful advice for parents

Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance. Self employed women can usually claim Maternity Allowance. Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance are paid for the first 39 weeks of maternity leave.

Statutory Maternity Pay You can get Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) if you have worked for your employer since before you became pregnant, you are still employed by them 15 weeks before your baby is due (when you are about 25 weeks’ pregnant) and you earn at least £112 (from April 2015) in roughly weeks 18-25 of your pregnancy. This could apply if you are an agency worker or any employed earner – you don’t have to be an employee. For the first six weeks of your maternity leave, your Statutory Maternity Pay is 90 per cent of average earnings (based on roughly weeks 18-25 of your pregnancy). For the next 33 weeks, it is paid at 90 per cent or £139.58 (from April 2015), whichever is lower. Your employer is responsible for paying your SMP or giving you written reasons why you are not entitled. As well as SMP, your employer may pay you contractual/occupational maternity pay, which might have different conditions and may be closer to the amount of your normal wage. You should ask your employer about this. Your employer does not have to pay more than SMP unless you have a contractual right to additional maternity pay.

Maternity Allowance If you cannot get SMP, you may be entitled to Maternity Allowance (MA). You can get this if you are employed or self-employed, or have been working recently. It is based on the 66 weeks before your baby is due. You need to have 26 weeks of work in that time, which do not have to be consecutive and can be with different employers and/or self-employed. You also need to have at least 13 weeks in that time when you earned £30 a week or more on average. If you are self-employed, you must have paid Class 2 National Insurance or had a certificate of low earnings exception which will be used as evidence of your wages.

Maternity Allowance is paid at 90 per cent of your average earnings or £139.58 (from April 2015), whichever is lower. It is paid at the same rate for 39 weeks. If you have paid Class 2 National Insurance, you get maximum MA (£139.58 per week). If you had a certificate of low earnings exception, or you could have paid Class 2 NI but you did not do so, you get minimum MA (£27 per week). You claim Maternity Allowance from the Jobcentre. If you have been employed in the 15th week before your baby is due, you will need written evidence from your employer that you are not entitled to SMP. This is usually provided on a form called SMP1 that you get from your employer.

When you can start maternity leave and pay The earliest you can start your maternity leave and pay is 11 weeks before your baby is due, unless you give birth before then. It is up to you to decide when you wish to start your maternity leave and you can work right up to the birth if you wish. Your leave will start on the day stated in your notice.

If you are off work with a pregnancy-related absence in the four weeks before your baby is due, your employer can insist you start your maternity leave. In that case your leave and pay will start the day after your first day of pregnancy-related absence.

If you give birth before you start maternity leave, your leave and pay will start the day after the birth. SMP or MA will start on the same day as your maternity leave i.e. the day stated in your notice or, if applicable, the day after your first day of pregnancy-related absence or the day after the birth.

Note: You should notify your employer as soon as reasonably practicable if you are absent for a pregnancy-related reason in the four weeks before your EWC or if you give birth before you start your maternity leave.

Discrimination and dismissal It is unlawful to dismiss someone (including by making her redundant) or to treat her less favourably because she is pregnant, has a pregnancy-related sickness or takes maternity leave. If you think this is happening to you, ring our helpline on 0300 012 0312 for advice.

Paternity leave

In order to be eligible for paternity leave you must be an employee and must: . have or expect to have responsibility for the child’s upbringing, . be the biological father of the child or the mother’s husband, civil partner or cohabiting partner (you live with the mother and child), . have worked continuously for your employer for 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the baby is due – this means since before the mother became pregnant and . still be employed by the employer on the day the child is born.

You should give written notice to take paternity leave, if possible by the end of the 15th week before the baby is due. This is when the mother is about 25 weeks’ pregnant. If you haven’t given notice, do so as soon as possible. You can choose when to take your leave, which can be one or two weeks, and usually has to be taken within 56 days of the birth.

Most employees who are entitled to paternity leave will also be entitled to Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP). You must earn at least £112 a week (from April 2015). It is worth 90 per cent of average earnings, or £139.58 per week (from April 2015), whichever is less. Employed earners, like agency workers, who have enough service, can get SPP if they meet the earnings condition. Self-employed fathers and partners are not entitled to paternity leave and SPP (unless they pay themselves via PAYE and pay Class 1 National Insurance).

Additional paternity leave and pay

If you are entitled to paternity leave for a baby due before 5 April 2015, then you may be able to take extra paternity leave (called additional paternity leave). You will need to still be employed by the same employer when you start your additional leave. The earliest it can start is when the baby is 20 weeks old. The mother of the baby must return to work, and bring her SMP or MA to an end, and there must be at least two weeks of her maternity leave left.

If you are entitled to SPP, you will be entitled to Additional Statutory Paternity Pay paid at the same rate during the period when the mother would have got SMP or MA if she had not returned to work. You also need to give your employer a form signed by both you and the mother, at least 8 weeks before you want to start your additional paternity leave. Additional paternity leave is for a maximum of 26 weeks and must be taken within a year of the baby’s birth. You are allowed to take unpaid additional paternity leave if SMP or MA would not be payable, or you want to take leave for longer than the SMP/MA period.

Shared parental leave

For babies due on or after 5th April 2015, a new system of shared parental leave (SPL) and pay (ShPP) is available. You may be able to take this if you qualify for paternity leave and pay and your partner meets the employment and earnings conditions for SMP or MA. SPL can be taken at any time after the 2 weeks of compulsory maternity leave, but it does require notice to be given by both parents. SPL is created by curtailing maternity leave and/or pay, but it can be taken at the same time as maternity leave, as long as the woman has given binding notice she will return early. Women on maternity leave can also take SPL if they wish to end their maternity leave and then take some SPL at a later date. ShPP is the same rate as paternity pay and can last for the balance of the SMP/MA pay period. More information is at www.gov.uk.

Returning To Work after maternity leave You do not need to give any notice of return if you are going back to work at the end of maternity leave. You simply go to work on the day that you are due back. Your employer should have written to you to confirm the date your maternity leave ends, though they do not always do this. If you take all the maternity leave that you are legally entitled to (Ordinary Maternity Leave plus Additional Maternity Leave), you are due back to work on the day after the end of the 52 week period. If you want to take less leave than this, you must give 8 weeks’ notice to return as you are in fact returning early.

If you do not want to return to work If you do not want to go back to work after your maternity leave, you just give notice in the normal way, as if you were at work. You can do this at any time, but if you wait until towards the end of your maternity leave you will retain all your rights until your notice runs out. For example, employed women accrue holidays during their maternity leave, but you stop accruing these if you resign because once your notice runs out you are no longer employed. You never have to pay back any Statutory Maternity Pay if you do not return to work. If you got more than Statutory Maternity Pay (occupational or contractual maternity pay), then your employer may have attached conditions which mean you have to pay some money back if you do not return. However, you only have to repay if the conditions were stated in your contract or maternity policy, or agreed with your employer before you started your maternity leave.

Notice of early return If you want to return before the end of your 52 weeks maternity leave, you should give your employer at least 8 weeks notice of the date you will be returning. You can change your mind about returning to work early provided that you give at least 8 weeks notice before the date you now intend to return or the date you had intended to return, whichever is earliest.

Right to Return When you go back to work after OML (the first six months of maternity leave) you have the right to return to your old job on your old terms and conditions. When you go back to work after taking some AML (any part of the second six months of maternity leave) you have the right to return to your old job on your old terms and conditions unless it is “not reasonably practicable”, in which case your employer must offer you a suitable alternative job on similar terms and conditions. It is very unusual for it to be “not reasonably practicable” to give you your job back unless there is a redundancy situation (see below). If your job still exists but your employer is only offering you an alternative, please call our helpline for advice. If you are not allowed to return to work after maternity leave or you are not given your old job back, or not given a suitable alternative job if you are returning after some AML, you may have a claim for automatic unfair dismissal and sex discrimination. If your employer is claiming that your job is redundant get advice. If you want to return to work on a different pattern, for instance you want to work part time in what was a fulltime job, read Flexible Working below. Your employer does not have to allow you to change your work pattern but should only refuse your request for a good reason.

Breastfeeding and returning to work For six months after giving birth, if there is evidence of a risk to you or your baby’s health, your employer has a duty to carry out a risk assessment and adjust your duties, workplace or hours to remove any risks. If you are breastfeeding for longer than this, you are still entitled to health and safety protection if you can show that your baby’s health would suffer if you cannot continue to breastfeed. You must tell your employer in writing that you gave birth in the last six months or that you are breastfeeding. This applies whether you are returning from maternity leave or starting a new job. The adjustments your employer might make could include giving you breaks to express milk or to breastfeed, without any loss of pay

Flexible Working

What is right for you? Before you decide which pattern of working is best for you, think about how it will affect your finances and career. Remember that both you and your partner, if you are a couple, may have the right to request a change in your working pattern. There is a toolkit on Working Families’ website to help you decide what working pattern will be right for your family.

The right to request The law on making a formal request to work flexibly changed on 30th June 2014. If you made a request before this time then check our website for information about the old rules and procedures.

There is no absolute right to work part time. However, if you have been with your employer for 26 weeks, you have the right to ask to work flexibly in your current job, and your employer has a duty to consider your request seriously.

The right to request is available to both men and women, whether or not they are parents, and covers the hours an employee works, the times s/he is required to work and the place of work (i.e. home or the workplace). It is important to understand that a change granted under the right to request is permanent - if you want a temporary change only this must be specifically negotiated with your employer. Even if you do not have the right to request (for example, you have not worked for your employer for long enough), you can still ask to change your pattern of work, and sex discrimination law may apply if you are turned down.

Making the request Your request must:  be in writing;  be dated;  explain the change they would like to their working pattern;  explain when they would like the change to come into force;  explain what effect the change would have on the business;  explain how such effects might be dealt with;  state that it is a statutory request;  state if the employee has made a request previously and if so when.

There is a standard letter you can use on Working Families website. Guidance suggests that employees should state if they are making their request in relation to the Equality Act. The example it gives is a disabled person who wants to change their hours as a reasonable adjustment. It is recommended (but not required) that if you are asking for the change to care for a child or disabled person you state this on your application, with some detail about the impact on family life if it is turned down. Once you have made the request, the employer has three months to give you a decision (although this can be extended by agreement). There is no longer e requirement for a meeting, although it is good practice to hold one. If the employer turns down your request they must give one or more of the permitted business reasons. These are:  Burden of additional costs  Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand  Inability to reorganise work among existing staff  Inability to recruit additional staff  Detrimental impact on quality  Detrimental impact on performance  Insufficiency of work during the periods you propose to work  Planned structural changes.

They must explain how the reasons relate to your application. However there is no legal requirement for the rejection to be in writing (although the code says it is good practice for it to be), and there is no legal requirement for a right to appeal. So the only way an employer can breach the actual procedure is by either not giving permitted reasons, by taking longer than three months to give you a decision or by giving reasons which are not factually correct.

Sex discrimination and flexible working If you are not entitled to the right to request, or if you continue to be unreasonably turned down, it can be useful to use the law on sex discrimination as an argument. Indirect sex discrimination may apply if you are a woman and, for example, you cannot work full-time because of your childcare responsibilities. Direct sex discrimination may apply if you are a man and women doing similar jobs to you have been allowed to work part-time. You can get more information about this from our website and helpline.

Parental leave

Parental leave is unpaid time off from work to care for your children. You are entitled if you have worked for at least a year for your employer and you have a child under 18 (before 5 April 2015, you had to have a child under 5 or a disabled child under 18). The right applies to both men and women, as long as you have parental responsibility.

You are entitled to 18 weeks of parental leave, but you may not be able to take this all in one go. You should check whether your employer has a collective or workplace agreement about parental leave. If not, you can usually only take four weeks in any one year, but your employer may allow more.

You also usually have to give at least 21 days notice, but your employer could accept less, or may require more under the collective/workplace agreement. It’s also not usually possible to take parental leave a day at a time – you must take it in weeks, unless you have a child on DLA or PIP. However, your employer is allowed to be more flexible.

Your employer can’t refuse your parental leave, but could postpone it if your absence would disrupt the business.

Most people can’t claim anything during parental leave, but some people may be able to claim Income Support. This usually won’t apply if you have a partner who is working during your parental leave.

Parental leave is a separate right to shared parental leave (SPL) which some parents may be able to use to share time off during the first year, if their child is due or adopted on or after 5 April 2015.

Time off for Dependants

This is the right to emergency unpaid leave if your child is sick or your childcare arrangements fall through unexpectedly. It must be an unforeseen emergency. You have the right to take reasonable unpaid time off, probably of no more than one or two days, and you must make arrangements to come back to work as soon as you can. You must let your employer know what is happening. Your employer can’t penalise you for taking reasonable time off in a genuine emergency for someone who depends on you.

Useful contacts

Working Families Jobcentre Plus [email protected] You can find your nearest Jobcentre Plus office in England, Helpline: 0300 012 0312 Wales and Scotland by looking at There is more information for www.gov.uk parents at www.workingfamilies.org.uk You can ring them to make a claim Registered Charity No 1099808 for benefits on 0800 055 6688 Company No 4727690 In Northern Ireland, contact your local office of the Social Security Child Benefit Agency. Telephone: 0300 200 3100 Textphone: 0300 200 3103 Maternity Action www.gov.uk/childbenefit Advice on maternity rights and pregnancy discrimination Contact a Family www.maternityaction.org.uk Telephone: 0808 808 3555 Helpline: www.cafamily.org.uk 0845 600 8533

Citizens Advice Bureau Tax Credits Helpline Get information on your rights in Telephone: 0345 300 3900 employment, benefits and other Textphone: 0345 300 3909 areas, or find your local Citizens www.gov.uk/taxcredits Advice Bureau in England/Wales www.adviceguide.org.uk In Scotland, you can find your nearest CAB via www.cas.org.uk and in Northern Ireland via www.citizensadvice.org.uk

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