The trick is to apply in the right month, so you don't need to provide your income amount when you were working. If you keep your loan up to date, and then apply the first month your income drops to just her mat. leave payments you will most likley have an income that will allow 0 payments (as they will take into consideration her student loans as well even if she is on rap, or interest relief herself)

 

There are tables online to calculate what the qualifying income levels are based on family size and payment levels. They also show you what your lower payment would be if you didn't qualify for a 0 payment.

 

I used to work there, so off the top of my head my advice would be this. If your last full paycheck is in May for example. Make sure all your loans are up to date and you make your end of may payments.

 

Apply for Rap from June onwards.

They will advise you to fill out COl 1 with your estimated gross income for both you and your spouse for June.

 

You'll put 0 for you, and her mat payments for your wife's income.  Make sure to specify any student loans she has, and you may have anywhere else. Also make sure your family size is updated to reflect your new addition.

What they wont tell you that is SOOOO Important to have everything run smoothly is DATE THAT APPLICATION FOR A JUNE DATE. No matter what. It actually isn't supposed to be dated the day you sign it, it's not a signature date, it's an application date. If you were to say fill it out late and put July's date after signing your name, or may's date by accident it all goes to pot, and you'll be rejected due to insufficnent proof of income .

 

When you go back to working and recieving a paycheck, you can call and cancell the rap coverage. Or make payments voluntarily until your coverage runs out. The voluntary payments while covered on rap will also go directly to your principal and is a good way to knock off some debt. I always used to advise anyone who was unemployed in the summer to take advantage of this.

 

However beware that as far as i know being on RAP does affect your credit score. I'm not 100% on that but when I worked there I used to recieve a lot of letters from people wanting to cancell their Interest Relief as it was hurting their chances of getting a mortgage etc.