To think maternity pay should be better funded?

This it is incredibly unfair to compare the two

I live in Scotland so our tax thresholds are different.

People on 35k will be paying significantly less student loan than people on 50k because you pay back 10% of everything over £25k.

The difference is £200/month in take home pay. Plus on £35k I am entitled to UC and Scottish child payment.

You could go on long term sick and get full pay for 6 months and half pay for 6 months, why should that be any better than maternity pay? I just don’t understand.

Eh? Most employers pay statutory sick pay, not 6 months full pay. The ones that do pay 6 months full pay 6 months half are generally also paying enhanced maternity pay. And are probably public sector.

If you're on £50k ish you're barely paying anything at 40% and whilst you're paying student loan, so probably is the person earning £35k.

Surely its a decision. I moved companies to civil service a few years before i wanted to start TTC. They offer 6 months full pay, then its SMP for 3 months then unpaid for 3 months. I knew the situation with SMP and that wouldn't be enough so i chose to change jobs so i could take 6 months off on full pay

Statutory sick pay isn’t better than statutory maternity pay!

The vast majority of people don't use their full sick pay allowance, if people were taking a years sick, going back to work for a year, then taking another year off sick, then potentially another, and another..... then I doubt many companies would pay anything beyond SSP.

I do think that maternity leave should be higher, but you can't compare sick leave and maternity pay, they are not comparable.

You could go on long term sick and get full pay for 6 months and half pay for 6 months, why should that be any better than maternity pay? I just don’t understand.

Depends where you work - some places wont even pay the first week, then its SSP

I’m private sector, not remotely connected to those type of industries. I’ve saved like crazy for my maternity, but I’m still looking at only taking six months max. It’s pretty shit really!

It isn't going to put those that can afford kids off.
Should we be making having kids more attractive for those that want afford it?
Should we encourage people to birth kids into poverty?

You're not comparing like with like, which is ever so slightly disingenuous.

Statutory sick pay is £109.40 per week. Statutory maternity pay is £172.48 per week.

The liklihood is that if your company pays enhanced sick pay they probably pay enhanced maternity pay.

The reality is that you choose to have children but nobody chooses to be sick or incapacitated. I'd rather sick pay be improved so that people dealing with things like cancer have less financial pressure upon them than to plough money into facilitating lifestyle choices.

Okay, but I also pay 40% tax and student loan contributions, so I’m not actually bringing home much more than someone on say £35k.

“Slightly higher than average earner”? You’re 50% higher than the average earner!

'As the baby boomers die off, without immigration, population will fall.'

I don't think so - you realise that when the 'hated' baby boomers dies off (thanks for the support - I paid for your education and that of your children) there will be gen x causing you the same kind of problems.

Crazy that you don’t think that all mothers should get a year though; I’d be pretty paused off that the physical toll of giving birth is ignored and that an adoptive dad gets longer than a birth mum? Doesn’t that seem off to you?

Exactly.

Especially if the one giving birth is the higher earner. Which can often be the case in same sex relationships, or just where the female is the higher earner in heterosexual relationships.

It should definitely be a proportion of what you earn, given that higher earners contribute more to society in the way of taxes.

Employers can add to the government maternity pay as well. We do 4 months full pay for maternity and 2 months for paternity. As we’re remote, we also do flexible working and babies often attend meetings, so the end of ‘leave’ doesn’t signify full time childcare unless parents feel that suits them best. We haven’t had anyone from our small business adopt yet, but if they did we’d probably extend to 1y full pay for partner in maternity role (as this is the length of time required to be off) and 6 months for partner in paternity role (due to differing issues).

I do think it could be better and I equally think more employers could do more too. I think it needs to be a joint effort between government and employers to make parents lives better. At the moment, it often falls to the women to take time off over childcare issues or when children are sick, these things need looking at too and policies should be improved to make it more feasible for both parents. It’s also important that shared parental leave isn’t often looked at - employers can agree to pay the same length full pay whether it’s shared or not. I think the provisions for shared parental leave should also be relooked at and effort made to find out why the uptake is low.

No, it should be up to employers.

Im a slightly higher than average earner (£50kish) and only got 13 weeks at 90% pay and then my wages dropped down to SMP.
I also couldn’t bank holidays to tack on to my leave or anything like that.

My partner works for the same employer and was able to take 4 weeks maternity leave on full pay, plus 4 weeks of holiday, and then a further 4 weeks on half pay (which they divided over his entire leave so we were actually barely any worse off)

We work for the same organisation which makes the whole thing more laughable!

Also OP, your maternity package is very good. I got statutory minimum then when I returned to work, I was fired (made redundant) first morning back. It took me a year to force them to tribunal, when they begrudgingly paid out.
I was lucky that I had legal insurance and could pay a legal team. Many women don't and just have to suck it up.

I think a % of salary would be better.

Whilst I understand in theory women on higher wages have more capacity to save for maternity the drop between wages and stat pay is obviously larger the more you're on and therefore difficult to maintain outgoings whilst you're off, especially if you're not entitled to any further help.

It makes it easier for someone part time earning £900 a month to take the drop in salary for the full payment period than someone on £2500 per month

Everyone should be on an even playing field on maternity but it doesn't seem to be the case atm

I think that's decent tbh.

Must be the people we know and the sectors they work in. I honestly don't know anyone who DOESNT get enhanced mat pay.

Just a quick check but looks like the civil service, most large banks/building societies and all the supermarkets offer at least 6 months full pay. Over the last 5-10 years it has become a lot more common

My employer pays full sick pay for 5 days, then SSP. We only get SMP for pregnancy. I haven’t done the maths, but I’m pretty sure I would be paid more for 6 months maternity leave than 6 months on the sick.

Personally, I would be happy with more help with childcare. I think companies could be doing more in that area.

Have you only just noticed! It's been this way for decades.

I had ds 15 years ago. There was no way that I could afford a second even then. Most of my friends have one or two. My only relative who has three, her husband is in the American military so their early married life, they were provided with housing. They get help with college fees.

The U.K. govt wants women working, contributing to GDP and paying tax. Not producing too many children. Our birth rate is less than 1.6 per woman. Replacement rate is 2.1. As the baby boomers die off, without immigration, population will fall.