Hey guys

I am going to be fairly heavily reliant on CL payments to survive financially after bubs is born - due to some recent occurances. I have changed my working arrangements so i can work right up until the birth of bubs and will be returning to work full time within about 5 months or so - probably earlier part time though.

My understanding of it is - i cant apply until after bubs is born (i wont be eligiable until then anyway) and payments will begin after that. How long does it normally take for payments to kick in?? I am going to pre prepare all the forms so they can be submitted asap afterwards to minimise delays. But i am really stressed about this, as i have not had good experiences in the past.

I am saving as much as i can at the moment to try and cover me in between my pay ceasing and CL starting, which would have been ok - BUT i went into early labour on friday (thankfully they were able to stop it! ) but i have been told by my OBS to expect this baby to be born fairly early - which screws up my savings not to mention bubs wont be finished cooking!

Its just i have not had good experiences in the past - it took over 3 months for them to process a disability payment for myself - when i clearly was - I was in a wheelchair and back brace FFS! Even then they wouldnt pay it, they made me go on newstart allowence! So i still had to meet looking for work criteria to get my payment - but thats a whole other rant!!!

So yeah needless to say i am stressing right out about this. Its is NOT the finacial situation that i expected to be in when i was bringing a baby into this world - far far from it...