Maternity pay has gone too far

That’s all very well and good to a point, but I had to start my mat leave 6 weeks early due to awful hip problems. I started work again just after my baby turned 8 months and I was very ready to, so I don’t necessarily disagree with you that 6 months with baby is ok. However if I’d had 6 months may leave in my situation id have returned to work with a 4 month old - neither of us would have been remotely ready for that

we already have terrible mat leave compared to lots of other countries, why make it worse

Let's hope she doesn't win the race for Tory party leader ......

She's the child of immigrants and wants to up the drawbridge behind her as well; completely lacking in empathy for others.

Please don’t belittle educated women who know how to research their sources.

She’s a dangerous, vile, evil, misogynistic, entitled nightmare of a woman.

She seems to live in a bubble. She’s the one that thought a couple of shifts at McDonalds made her working class. I’ve no problem with assertive women but I think she’s a bully

My DD did the same from when her baby was 4.5 months old and fed him until he was 20 months

Oh and he refused a bottle so had expressed milk in a tommee tipped cup and a breastfeed at lunchtime ( or whatever break she had - shift work)

I think that's what she was saying. She might know what a woman is but she doesn't care about poor ones.

I honestly thought Kemi couldn’t be more hateful but off she goes. At a time when mums are struggling to feed themselves on the frankly piss poor excuse for maternity pay that SMP is. Disgraceful. She was also spouting nonsense. I owned a business and claimed SMP back from HMRC when my employee went on maternity leave.

There was a time woman couldn't have a bank account ......

It's a slippery slope.

I do hope she wins the leadership election.

She'll be the final nail in the Tory coffin.

A patriarchy pick me "woman". She's vile.

Don't you know we should all just make better choices and marry an investment banker to fund our lifestyles.

Socioeconomic cleansing at its finest.

Can you not see how she means employers could choose which benefits to offer?

So people who are high earners in a competitive market will choose companies with good parental leave packages. Many people at the other end of the scale with little choice regarding their employment, who just need work, will have nothing - zero hours contract, no sick pay, no maternity pay

Thus, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

There is absolutely no way to package what she said and make it palatable.

Not necessarily. My DC1 was exclusively breastfed and I returned to work when he was 6 months, having spent the previous few weeks teaching him to take expressed milk from a cup. He finally weaned at 2.5 so it clearly didn't harm our breastfeeding journey.

Nevertheless, Kemi Badenoch is ridiculous and maternity leave/shared parental leave should be much better supported.

I don’t think anyone claimed she said the amount was excessive, she seems to think the length is excessive and I don’t understand her point that somehow businesses are going bust due to statutory maternity regulations considering the business claims it back and doesn’t end up paying it!
Considering the only other real statutory protection is that your job needs to be kept open for you in some capacity for 12 months, then no, I don’t think people are outraged enough about her comments!

I went back at 7 months with DD1 (full pay for 6 months) and 5 months (SMP only) for DD2. Exclusively breastfed DD1 until 22 months and DD2 is going strong at almost 1. Both times had a flexible employer so despite working full time didn’t need full time childcare which helped. I don’t understand why she’s saying it’s taking from one tax paying group - I’ve paid more tax in 6 months than I received in SMP for both pregnancies.

Ahhh. So your baby took a bottle. Well done. Good for you.

I think pearl clutching about leaving babies aged 6-9 months doesn't really get the point across to people who spout nonsense like her as they will just point out the short leave in the US.

It's ridiculous of course as wide reaching effects will cost far more. It would plunge many families into poverty at a time when food bank usage is at a high, children growing up in 'heat or eat' households are less likely to be economically active themselves in adulthood. Given the link between development aged 2 and future outcomes some children in lower socioeconomic groups would never be able to reach their full potential.

DV and women's charities would be even more overwhelmed with women who had no money to call their own in the postpartum period which is a vulnerable time for abuse.

Abortion rates would go up as couples for whom previously a pregnancy would have been a happy accident would become a financial liability.

The birth rate would fall outside of religious households.

I really don't know who this was supposed to appeal to.

And as others have pointed out, it's also offensive as I consider my own taxes paid my maternity leave!

Quite.
i have Hungarian neighbours and they were telling me about maternity benefits in their country (summary below). It’s so comprehensive compared to the U.K. I just don’t get how we have gone so wrong in this country, we seem to actively hate families and children and only care about getting everyone back to work asap as if that’s all that matters. I believe we can fund better family policies, we just need an overhaul of our tax system.

Maternity Leave
Women have 24 weeks of maternity leave but can take up to three years of leave and receive maternity benefits.
For the first six months, mothers are entitled to Pregnancy and Confinement Benefit (CSED) at a rate of 70.00% of the salary. For the next eighteen months until the child’s second birthday, mothers are entitled to a Child Care Fee (Gyermekgondozási díj – GYED) at a rate of 70.00% of the salary up to a maximum of double the minimum wage.
A benefit called Child Home Care Allowance (Gyermekgondozási segély – GYES) is also available for parents or grandparents taking care of a child up to the age of three. The benefits are paid by the National Health Insurance Fund of Hungary (NEAK).
The family allowance is available to entitled individuals and the rate of the allowance is dependent upon the number of dependents and beneficiary dependents. This allowance has been increased from 2023 if one of the beneficiary dependents is seriously disabled or permanently ill.

i managed it with a breast pump, bottles and a fridge.

I do consider myself fortunate, but my circumstances weren’t exceptional.

She should ask Boris how many various women have claimed SMP for his offspring.

Seriously though she needs to back off on this one. Many women have been taxpayers for decades before receiving SMP and it's bloody insulting she's implying otherwise. Plus a falling birth rate surely means SMP payments are dwindling every year anyway!!

Realistically though there is a very small percentage of babies are fully breastfed at 9 months.

It's a great " improvement" on how it used to be. I remember 16 weeks max when I had DD1. Although for low earners they are probably no worse off on maternity pay then being at work and paying childcae

What if they can't afford to live on one income for 6 months? Perhaps if people didn't have to borrow 10 x their salary to buy a house or pay 40% of their income on rent, they'd be able to save a bit more for maternity leave. As it is, most people need 2 incomes to survive.

I don’t think 9 months is excessive but I don’t think it should be more than that either. Especially not 1-2 years.

Wouldn't of worked for mine either