Maternity benefit ......help

Ok guys...here is my experience and I pray to God that someone out there can offer a little advice.
I started employment in Sept 2008 and went on maternity benefit Dec 2009. Husband currently unemployed receiving jobseekers allowance. Prior to my maternity benefit starting he was receiving 215.00 euro(2 kids). My wages was 350.00euro weekly.
Now he has had his allowance cut til 155.00 and thats with 3rd child.
So we have our weekly income cut from
My wages 350.00 + husbands jobseekers allowance 215.00 = 565.00
to
maternity benefit 225.00 + hubbies jobseekers 155.00 = 380.00 plus the 3rd child...

I just cannot get my head around this I feel we are being penalised for having kids.
To add salt to the wounds they say that we owe them 780 euro back payment for their delay.
Can someone out there please advise is this correct and if so is there anything else we can get in order to make ends meet..we have just enough for this months mortgage. Dont want to be crying the poor mouth but this to me is seriously flawed.

Are you getting Fis, you would be entitled to 83 pw if you are working over 19 hours

What reason did they give for the reduction in his payment?

It sounds like he was on a reduced rate anyway because your income was assessed as means. As you are now getting less, you should ask them to re-evaluate this.

A delay from them shouldn't have caused an overpayment, are they saying they should have cut his money sooner? You don't have to pay this back in a lump sum, or even that quickly, particularly where the error was on their part and not fraud by you.
Arrange to give them something fairly low each week until your situation improves, say €5 a week.

Thanks for reply.
No not getting Fis can I apply now for that now or do I wait till I return to work

Berni
The reason they gave is that he lives with a person who is not your dependent and who is not entitled to the allowance in her own right.

Have spoke to social welfare regarding this and could not clarify anything to me and mention something about that it will be going for futher assesment with high priority attached.
CWO also on the case, he came back to me today and told me just go into them at the exchange.
So not having a good day.

So looking at the figures, up to the end of last year, this is what he was receiving:
Payment for himself, plus dependant adult for you, plus 2 children = €389
Then they subtract the means from your income of €174, leaving him with €215
So far so good.

But now it seems they've capped your combined payment at the max rate for a family of your size. You can't get two full payments, and you only get half rate each for the children.
I would query with them if Maternity Ben is meant to be treated that way. If you were both on Jobseekers it would be correct, but I'm not sure its the same for MB.