What to do, in order
A baby is coming, or has arrived
Two of the things you can claim disappear on a deadline, and one of them is money towards the birth itself. Here is what to do and by when.
Do these first
Not because they are the most important, but because they run out. Everything further down the page will still be there next week.
Apply for a Sure Start Maternity Grant
£500 towards the cost of your first baby, if you are on Universal Credit, Pension Credit or certain other benefits. You do not pay it back. In Scotland you claim the larger Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment instead.
From 11 weeks before the due date until six months after the birth. After that it is gone.
Claim Child Benefit as soon as the birth is registered
Worth claiming even if one of you earns over £60,000 and would pay some of it back: the claim itself protects your National Insurance record while you are at home with a child under 12, which counts towards your State Pension.
It can only be backdated three months, so claiming late costs real money.
Register the birth
Within 42 days in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; within 21 days in Scotland. You need the certificate for almost everything else.
Then, when you have a moment
Get a Healthy Start card if you qualify
Money on a card every week for milk, fruit, vegetables and pulses, plus free vitamins, from ten weeks pregnant until the child is four. Scotland runs Best Start Foods instead.
Free prescriptions and dental care
Free while pregnant and for twelve months after the birth, whatever you earn. You need a maternity exemption certificate, and your midwife or GP applies for it.
Tell Universal Credit, or claim it
A child changes the calculation substantially: there is a child element, and help with childcare costs of up to 85% once you go back to work.
Check your maternity or paternity pay
Statutory Maternity Pay runs 39 weeks. If you do not qualify through an employer, Maternity Allowance covers many self-employed and recently employed people instead, and it is a separate claim.
What people are not usually told
- Child Benefit is worth claiming even at a high income. Tick the box to receive no money if you prefer, and you still get the National Insurance credit that protects your pension.
- The Sure Start Maternity Grant is only for a first child in most cases, but a multiple birth counts even if you already have children.
- Free prescriptions run for a whole year after the birth, not just during the pregnancy.
Now check the rest of it
The full check runs through more than fifty benefits, discounts and grants against what has changed. It takes about three minutes, it stays in your browser, and nothing is sent to us or to anybody else.
Only the DWP, HMRC, your council or the NHS can decide what you get. This tells you what to ask for.