Can I get a loan while on maternity leave?

So you’ve had the baby (congrats by the way!) and you are heading back to work soon. You are also keen to move into a bigger place now that things have settled down a bit and before you head back to work but shock horror your lender says no way not until you’re actually back at work. After all how do we know you will actually go back at all!

Well never fear if you are heading back to work soon and can prove it we have a few solutions; read on through that hopefully not too sleep deprived haze!

Amazing isn’t it? The attitude of most lenders in this area is straight out of the 1950’s well maybe the 1970’s but they are still way behind in this area in our opinion. Their argument is how do we know if the mother or father will go back to work and on what basis will they be employed and what about the child care costs etc how do we quantify this? Well the simple answer is they should use some common sense and should rely more on the character of the applicant’s. If a mother is planning to go back to work in a few months and has proof of this and what level her new pay will be (if dropping to part time from full time for example) why does the bank doubt this?

After all I am yet to meet a family that has a mortgage or wants to upgrade their home which will require dual incomes to suddenly decide that one partner should not work anymore and they should just decide to default on their loans. It really is just plain dumb policy and doesn’t account for what people actually do.

The truth is they should be more worried about couples who gear up to their eyeballs based on two incomes then have a baby and struggle to make it work which is much more common. Perhaps they should go back to not lending based on a females’ income if she is of child baring age like they did up until about the 1980’s? Sounds archaic doesn’t it well things haven’t really changed that much with a lot of lenders when it comes to obtaining a loan on maternity leave.

Our big bug bare is that it flies in the face of the work place reforms we have had over the last 25 years or so and is so very anti family. Luckily there are at least two lenders we know of who take a common sense approach to loans while on maternity leave.

What you need for your income to be considered for a loan while on maternity leave:

1. An employment letter that clearly states the following:
   - Your actual return to work date. Not your planned return to work date.
   - Your tenure i.e. part time / full time / casual once you return.
   - You income once you return i.e. if reduced to part time what your new annual pay will be.
2. Last few pay slips from before you went on maternity leave.
3. Sufficient liquid assets such as cash or shares to cover any gap between when the new mortgage repayments will start and when you will return to work.
4. A plan in regards to managing ongoing child care.
5. The cost of child care if applicable has been accounted for in your expenses.

Next steps if you want a loan while on maternity leave

Congratulation for making it this far!

Your next step is to give Mortgage Experts a call on 1300 711 054 and ask to speak to me Marty McDonald. I have a young family myself and a partner who works so I understand where you are coming from. I have been dealing with this issue with lenders for years both on a personal and professional level so I know which lenders will be flexible and which ones won’t be (at all!).