New baby but no maternity pay. Please help if you can.

Hi Everyone, We find ourselves in a difficult position. So after much panic, I have decided to swallow my embarrassment and ask for your help.

We have a new baby due on the 11th of March 2025. This was an unexpected, but wonderful gift (I am 52 years old!!). The problem is, we face a tough, 60% drop in our income when Caroline stops working.

Those of you who know us, know Caroline is a Nurse. Despite a decade of service to the NHS, Caroline's time at her current job falls 2 weeks short of receiving maternity pay.

I am a self employed artist/sculptor earning just enough for it to be worth doing. But we rely on Caroline's steady income to pay bills and to pay them on time.

Despite qualifying for a small maternity allowance payment from the government, we will be losing approximately £2000 of our household income every month while Caroline cares for the baby. This will beggar us for a few months and it will be hard to meet all our bills.

I have a plan in place to ramp up the income from my self employment, and we will tighten our belts, but this will take several months to bear fruit. Plus, it comes after some difficult years where Covid, inflation, recession and Brexit have taken a big bite out of my business already.

Your help will allow Caroline to spend some more time with the baby before returning to her grueling 13 hour shifts. It will also help me to continue with my art business. I could quit art and find a job but we would only be marginally better off and it would delay the moment my art makes enough money to support my whole family. The more we can raise, the more time Caroline can spend with the baby.

We know times are tough for a lot of people, but if you can afford to give anything it will be enormously helpful. Thank you for taking the time to read our tale of woe :)

Aaron Howdle and Caroline Hardy