Maternity pay has gone too far

I don't understand why I only qualified for SMP due to changing jobs right before I got pregnant. I had worked in schools for years and years before that, all the money comes from the same place (DfE) so changing jobs shouldn't matter!

So you could be £50 a week better off on maternity leave?hmm

And the shrinking birthrate...

Is there a minimum you have to earn to be eligible for SMP? Can part timers get it?

Not when you’re an emergency foster carer waiting for social services to sort out your fostering allowance. Four months we waited for payments to start and had to use our own savings to feed and clothe a child placed with us

So financially I could only afford to have my company maternity pay which was 16 weeks of full pay (due to my long length of service) and SMP was so pitiful it wasn’t an option! I managed 20 weeks off work with annual leave and accumulated bank holidays and I worked until my due date (daughter was14 days late.) I went into Labour with my waters breaking at the beginning, 48 hours later my daughter was in distress and I was in shock, and at just 2cms dilated despite having a drip to speed up labour, I had a life saving emergency Caesarian.

I was very poorly afterwards, I had an infection in my scar (from the surgery) and a serious infection in my womb, which a few days after returning home saw me haemorrhaging blood so badly that at first I thought I had wet myself, it was caused by my distressed daughter who did a poo inside me before she was born.

It almost certainly took 12 weeks to recover, and my daughter was not a sleeper by night!

I breastfed her exclusively and she refused a bottle, even though I was on crazy antibiotics which made me feel appalling. Trust me we tried everything to persuade her to have some formula, but she absolutely refused!

At 20 weeks post birth I returned to full time work out of necessity, we needed to secure a mortgage as our Landlord had issued a ‘No fault eviction’ as she had gotten into debt!

So as I returned to the office full time, exhausted and sleep deprived we completed the sale of our house, organised a week of reworking work, and remedial pluming and moved in! I had to have returned to work for the mortgage (achieved because I burned my annual leave for a month)

My daughter started full time nursery, still refused a bottle but would glut down breastmilk as if she was a Viking, I expressed milk twice a day in the office medical room to ensure she had a good supply the next day. She was still breastfed until she was two years old, literally nursing her in the morning until we left the house and as soon as I got home because I thought my boobs were going to explode!

The fact that I went through this because SMP was so dreadful, and so much worse than my salary tells me that SMP is woefully inadequate, and for women who has an income that is essential to paying bills an absolute insult!

It’s not linked to salary, it’s not enough to support a household!

I can’t tell you how much I am disgusted with Kemi!!!!

Shame on her!

No mother should ever have to go through an experience like mine!

Motherhood should not just be about surviving!

Women should be supporting other women!

Nothing is a pretty low bar to benchmark against.

As it is women (in some professions) must dim their career aspirations when they have children. In my profession, the top positions are mostly held by women without children. Women who went off on maternity leave were treated badly. When one mum returned was not given any work and the person hired as maternity cover was given a permanent contract until the new mum resigned. We need progressive politicians who understand maternity leave is temporary and that keeping women in the workplace ultimately will mean higher revenue for the government.

Don't forget there are a large number of business owners and managers who actually agree with her, even if they are usually circumspect about saying so. Her statement may well be an advantage to her in the Tory leadership election.

There'll still be hard core Kemi worshippers falling over themselves to make excuses for her.

I was shocked by this and I think she’s toasted her party with this and then backtracking once she realised she’d f’d up. We saved hard when I was pregnant as we both knew maternity pay was a pittance. We weren’t eligible for any other benefits. I got a measly £450 a month. My DH had to heavily subsidise this and we just in so managed. I felt I had to go back after 6 months just to bring in some much needed money. Again, we had to find money for 3 days in nursery and that was like an additional mortgage. I really can’t blame people for not wanting any children. If you work you are battered from every angle. Fathers also need way more paternity leave. I had a C-section and unfortunately wasn’t fully back on my feet by the time my DH had to go back to work. It’s just rotten. Yes we managed but so many things could be improved.

SMP is better than nothing

I just checked. In 2006, my boss was earning £55,000.

Now I’m the boss and I’m earning £52500, and doing a lot more of the work than she did.

The calculator reckons I should be on £92,000. Probably correct.

She had to walk a fine line, revealing sufficient of her views to Tory members to get elected leader while not revealing too much to the ordinary voters. She should have stuck to health and safety, as most of the population seem contemptuous of attempts to keep them alive at work.

Other European countries have much better maternity (and paternity) leave. Many have more support to allow women to stay at home with small children as well. Badenoch is out of order - small-statism and less regulation means fewer workers' rights, less health and safety and no statutory safeguards for minimum wages. Badenoch isn't going to experience any of the downsides of deregulation but the rest of us will. She was stupid to reveal her views, but now we know!

Emphasis on the knobs. 🤣 Plenty of them in the Tory party.

I thought why that might matter. I exclusively breastfed and my DS and DD were neither of them weaned at six months. Typical career woman's attitude to motherhood, with Conservative small-statism with knobs on as the icing.

Badenochs opinions on many things are VILE

She's just trying to appeal to the hard right. Of all the nonsense, this is the worst. We as a society can afford to have mum's and dad's provide care to their own children for a year after birth, while they are at their most vulnerable. Childcare is more expensive and difficult at that age anyway.

So he could drop days and work part time....he doesn't have to work full time in that role. He could do part time pilot and part time elsewhere....

If he didn't help his wife in crisis or wasn't there for you...not sure he was.

😆

My son and his wife live in Finland - they are entitled to 16 months of state paid maternity or paternity ( not at the same time) which is based on their usual income - so his wife had 12 month off and he’s now off for four months so she can go back to work - once their baby starts nursery it is a max of 200 euros a month for full time - they pay less as they have an older one as well - this is means tested - the country values families highly and this is paid for by taxation - my son moaned on first moving there about the higher tax rates paid but he moans no longer — our system is very poor - we need an increased birth rate or our older population will be completely screwed in 10 years time but government is too short sighted to see it.