To think maternity pay should be better funded?

If only those who could definitely afford it had children the birth rate would drop dramatically and we'd have even more problems than we do now with how to pay for the elderly.

I personally think maternity pay is ok. My husband earns an average income but with me contributing £300 from maternity pay we will be comfortable and around £400 will be plenty for my personal expenses.

It is more the childcare fees compared to other countries I find extortionate.

Yes, my husband and I are both in well paid jobs (household income ~£70k), he has an older child who we see as often as we can and pay maintenance for, and we have one child together. I've worked out that when taking into account child benefit coming in (for little one) and maintenance payments going out (for big one) the basic essential costs work out at about £6k per child. This is not including holidays, days out, luxuries like eating out, and big ticket items you might only buy once, such as car seat or pram. We can just about afford that, but if we had a second together, we'd need a bigger house that would tip our mortgage into the unaffordable category, we'd need to start again paying for childcare (little one is approaching school start age) plus the time I'd be on SMP before that time,, and all those luxuries which we currently enjoy in moderation alongside the essential costs, would be gone.

A few years ago, I would have thought a couple with a combined income of £70k would be living a brilliant lifestyle, able to have as many kids as they wanted and plenty of holidays, but now, I find that frequently we're just about managing to maintain a middle-class-ish lifestyle.

I think there is definitely a broader conversation to be had around what financial support the state should give parents, given our plummeting birth rate.

It shouldn’t be that working families struggle to afford a couple of kids.

I find it particularly peculiar that having multiple children is now the preserve of the very poor (little or no work, no need for childcare, live in cheap area) and the very rich (who can fund it easily) - while the vast majority of people in between / dual income households agonise over the affordability of even one.

I find Mumsnet generally seems to support the idea that having children should be a financial struggle, for reasons which are never made clear.

Really confuses me how women talk about mat pay as if there's not another adult in the household.

YABU OP because you are up in the rarefied atmosphere with your pay and lifestyle.

Most women do not get enhanced mat pay, and most people do not get enhanced sick pay.

Isn't it ? I got unexpectedly pregnant at 27, I saved 1/3 of my take home pay for 6 months, if both parents did that then that would go somewhere towards funding Mat leave. A similar amount was needed for childcare afterwards anyway. Who really thinks having children will leave their disposable income untouched ?

It seems to be becoming more and more important to work in the private sector with a good benefits package.

I had enhanced maternity with DC1 and it was great, I took a year off, the shortfall between when my enhanced maternity ended and I went back to work (a year later) was manageable. With DC2 I hadn’t been in my role long enough, so I was on SMP. If DP wasn’t a very high earner, I’d definitely have had to go back to work soon after DC2 was born, even though he was born with complicated health problems. I really don’t know how people manage.

I also think the importance of private healthcare at the moment cannot be understated, and I get that through work too.

It really shouldn’t be seen as a luxury. It should be automatic to be able to have a year off (if desired) with full pay. Women need their bodies to heal , to be able to recover and it would be beneficial in terms of health further down the line not to have an exhausted burnt out workforce. Beneficial to children too for that first year to have a primary caregiver again if that is what the parents want instead of nursery.

Nobody is making you have a baby op.

Er, no you didn't, you consistently supported policies to make further education unaffordable and defund education up to 18. Gen X has nothing like the same political power, they are a tiny generation and did not have the same financial advantages, on account of Boomers taking advantage of every policy that benefited them and then immediately doing everything possible to reverse those policies.

I had one kid and took six months off

I saved up beforehand to pay myself the loss of earning

Too many couples spunk tens of thousands on their weddings

We live in a fucked up world nowadays

You don't know any state school teachers then? 🙄

I get 6 weeks at 90% and the rest at £184 a week! I've been teaching for over 10 years. WTAF.

I've just finished 14 months maternity, 9 months SMP & 5 months unpaid. I saved £6000 beforehand to give myself an extra £500pm (for 12 months) & DH took care of all bills, mortgage etc whilst I was not earning.

Many people get enhanced maternity pay and some will choose their employment accordingly if they financially plan for the long term. However, reduced disposable income during maternity leave is one of the cheaper parts of being a child. Nurseries at £100+ per day or reducing hours to become part time usually has a bigger impact. Nobody has to take a year off and in many countries, it’s not even an option.

Comparing weekly, statutory pay for those on maternity leave with annual salary for an MP is nuts. We're supposed to go away and calculate the weekly pay for a £91k salary!

Most people get additional pay from their employer anyway. You'd manage if you realised you were having twins...

I am sure that it is possible to figure something out as other countries in Europe somehow could finance it and they don't seem to be bankrupt.

Also, I don't think that other social services are well funded either.

On the note of saving up money. I don't know in what world you are living in, but saving up the amount of money you need to get through maternity is not realistic for most families.

Because - where is the money going to come from?

What will you cut to fund this?

You have the opportunity to save for maternity leave though. Many babies are unplanned but for those who are planned, it should not be a surprise.

I would rather see funding aimed at education, health, social care, libraries and community resources rather than paying for parents to extend their mat leave.

Where do you think the money is going to come from?

I do think that people need to make 'some' provision for themselves.

I wish Mat pay had been around when I had my children but as it wasn't we had to manage. And my pregnancy was a bit of a surprise!

I am sorry but you completely internalised and rationalised the complete distegard of mum's and baby's wellbeing in favour of exploiting young families. I think early childcare, smp's and nursery's are outrageous in this country and I really don't understand how women don't go on the street and revolt asking for more smp and affordable or free state run childcare

People should live within their means and if they can’t afford something then the obvious solution is not to have it. Some people go back after 6 months to help with the financial side of it some even earlier so if someone can’t afford a whole maternity leave of 12 months or 9 months they then have to make the decision to go back early.

Lots of employers only give statutory sick pay and anything more is discretionary.

in respect of maternity pay, again it varies from employer to employer. The basic government subsidized maternity pay is small but many employers pay enhanced maternity pay. My previous employer paid six months full pay (and our sick policy was only 20 days a year full pay although I think they did pay longer on a discretionary basis).

If people cannot afford to have kids, they won't get any of those things, because there will be no one to pay for them. And also, no one to actually do the physical work of maintaining social infrastructure or anything else.

The reason people in societies like ours can without too much worry take the risk of NOT having children is because we have created a complex system where they can rely on their care and social funding from the state. In other places where that doesn't exist, everyone has to rely on their own children and family.

But you can't expect families to pay all the costs as if it's a wholly private thing, and then demand the benefits those children create as adults be distributed to all.

No one is suggesting that seriously, they are saying it's the logical outcome of the idea that children are a lifestyle decision for parents, and a luxury, not a very necessary part of a functioning society.