Support for new families

When you’re expecting a baby, you’re entitled to free NHS dental care until your baby turns one. During this time, you also get free prescriptions in England - in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales prescriptions are always free.

To claim these benefits, you need to fill out the Maternity Exemption form (FW8), which your doctor or midwife should be able to give you.

If you’re not working, or you qualify for income support, you’ll be entitled to healthy food vouchers to spend on milk, fruit, vegetables and vitamins.

Your right to paid time off work to go to antenatal appointments is protected. This means you don’t have to use holiday time for these appointments. Your partner is also allowed some unpaid time off work to go to two antenatal appointments with you.

When you have a baby, you’re entitled to maternity leave of up to a year, and you may be entitled to pay for up to 39 weeks.

If you’ve been with your employer for at least 26 weeks, earning at least £123 per week, you’ll be entitled to full statutory maternity pay.

This means that in the 2023/2024 tax year, for the first six weeks of your maternity leave, you’ll be paid 90% of your average weekly pay. For the next 33 weeks, you’re entitled to £156.66 per week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is less. You can take another 13 weeks of maternity leave, but this won’t be paid.

If you don’t qualify for this, you will still be entitled to maternity allowance, which covers self-employed parents and those who have not been with their employer for long enough. Depending on your earnings before you have the baby, maternity allowance could provide up to £156.66 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is less) a week for 39 weeks.

Your employer may offer higher levels of maternity pay, so please check their HR policy.

Your partner is also entitled to leave. People who are partners include: the child’s father or adopter; the mother’s partner; and (in adoption and surrogacy cases) the intended/responsible parents. If your partner has worked for their employer for long enough, they could be entitled to one or two weeks paid leave to help look after you and the baby.

You and your partner may be able to get Shared Parental Leave and Statutory Shared Parental Pay. You can share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay between you. There is an eligibility criteria and your employers will be able to tell you more.

Parents who are adopting a child or having a baby via surrogacy are also entitled to paid statutory adoption leave during this time. This is set at the same level as statutory maternity pay. Only one person in a couple can claim adoption leave (called the ‘primary adopter), although the other parent may be entitled to paid paternity leave. If the primary adopter returns to work before the end of their adoption leave, the remaining leave can be shared between the two adopting parents.

Anyone can apply to foster a child or children and you can get financial help with the cost as well as training and support.

Foster carers are entitled to a minimum weekly allowance for the child and they also get an additional tax exemption (shared between the carers) of up to £10,000 per year, meaning you may not have to pay income tax on the first £10,000 of income earned from fostering. There is also additional tax relief over £10,000 depending on the age of the child.

Once your baby has arrived, you may be entitled to a range of benefits designed to help you meet the costs of bringing up your child and paying for childcare.

The MoneyHelper Service has an interactive baby money timeline to help you find out when you need to inform your employer and when to claim benefits you may be entitled to.

These benefits range from the Sure Start Maternity Grant, a one-off payment of £500 to help parents on benefits such as Income Support to meet the costs of a new baby. You may also be entitled to Child Benefit if you’re responsible for one or more children. Even if you choose not to claim Child Benefit you should still send in the claim form to help you get National Insurance credits towards your State Pension.

Working Tax Credits and a monthly Child Benefit payment are available to eligible parents to help with the costs of raising children. You may also be eligible for free child care hours if your children are between two and four years old.

If you are a single parent you can arrange child maintenance payments from the other parent privately or seek help from the Child Maintenance Service.

Childcare is usually the biggest cost that parents face, so it’s worth making sure you’re taking up all the help that you may be entitled to.

Even grandparents who step in to look after their grandchildren are entitled to a boost - National Insurance credits are made on their behalf. So it’s always worth checking to see what help may be available at every different stage.