NEW Mums can bag themselves £500 in free cash through a little-known benefit.
It comes via the Sure Start Maternity Grant, which you don’t have to pay back.
New or expectant mothers can claim the free cash, but you have to be on certain benefits including Universal Credit.
You might also be in line for a payment greater than £500, depending on your circumstances.
Here’s everything you need to know.
The Sure Start Maternity Grant is a payment issued by the Government to new or expectant mothers.
The money is designed to help you cover the costs of having a child.
But you must be on certain benefits. The full list is:
You don’t have to pay the grant back and it doesn’t affect your other benefits or tax credits.
If you receive Support for Mortgage Interest loan you may also qualify for a grant.
Usually, you won’t get one of the grants if you already have any children aged under 16.
But, you may still be able to if you’re expecting twins or triplets, the child you’re caring for is someone else’s, you are classed as a refugee or you’re claiming the grant for a family member who’s under 16, or 16 to 19 and in certain types of education or training.
For example, if you have one or more children under 16 and none of them were from multiple births, you can get a £1,000 grant if you’re having triplets.
However, you would only get £500 if you’re having triplets and have already had twins.
The eligibility criteria can be a bit complex, so it’s worth applying just in case you qualify for help.
You can check out the full criteria on the Government’s website too.
You can’t receive a Sure Start Maternity Grant if you live in Scotland, but you can apply for a Pregnancy and Baby Payment instead.
You can make a claim for the grant by filling in the Sure Start Maternity Grant (SF100) claim form.
If you live in Northern Ireland you can download a claim form from nidirect.
Child benefit is worth up to £1,331 a year for your first or only child and up to £881 a year for additional children.
This works out at £102.40 every four weeks or £25.60 a week for your first child and £67.80 every 4 weeks or £16.95 a week for their siblings.
There is no limit on the number of children that can be claimed for.
Applying is straightforward and can be done in minutes at gov.uk or through the HMRC app.
Parents with a newborn baby should make a claim online as soon as possible and could then receive their first payment in as little as three days.
You can also backdate claims for up to three months.
Parents can make a claim and then choose to opt out of receiving Child Benefit payments can still receive National Insurance credits if one parent is not working.
National Insurance credits build up your entitlement to the state pension.
You have to claim the grant within 11 weeks of the baby’s due date or within six months of its birth.
For example, if you are adopting a child, you must claim within six months of the child being placed with you.
You can claim by post or phone.
If you are claiming by post, you will need to print out the Sure Start Maternity Grant (SF100) claim form.
Crucially, on page 10 there is a statement which you need to get filled in by a doctor or midwife.
However, you can send the form without this statement if you’re due to miss the deadline.
If you do this you’ll be contacted by the Department for Work and Pensions about arranging the statement at a later date.
Once you’ve filled in the form you’ll need to send it to “Freepost DWP SSMG”, or you can take it to your local Jobcentre Plus.
If you are posting it, you don’t need to add a postcode or stamp.
You’ll get a letter telling you if your claim was successful or not, and payment will be made to the same account where you usually get your benefit payments.
If you don’t qualify for a Sure Start Maternity Grant, there’s a host of other support on offer for parents.
You might be able to get up to £442 a year to put towards food and milk through the Healthy Start Scheme.
If you’re eligible you’ll be sent a Healthy Start card which you can use in a number of UK shops. The card is topped up for you every four weeks.
If you live in Scotland the scheme is called Best Start Foods.
You should claim Child Benefit if you haven’t already too. You have to actively claim it and won’t receive it automatically.
It’s worth up to £1,133 a year if you’re responsible for bringing up a child under 16 or under 20 and in approved education or training.
It’s worth £24 a week for your eldest or only child and £15.90 for any additional children.
You can apply for Child Benefit the day after you’ve registered the birth of your child, or once a child comes to live with you.
It can be backdated for up to three months and you can apply on the Government’s website.
Just beware of the High Income Child Benefit charge that you’ll be hit with once you start earning over £50,000.
The charge sees you pay back 1% of your child benefit for every £100 of income over this amount.
Once you reach £60,000 of income you have to repay the full amount.
Again, it is your responsibility to pay the charge to HMRC. If you don’t, you can be hit with a massive bill.
IF you're experiencing trouble applying for your Universal Credit, or the payments just don't cover costs, here are your options:
