Maternity pay has gone too far

I don't know why you think that, but what do you think was in the substance of what she said in full that doesn't imply she thinks maternity rights should be cut?

Surely not before she was well on with weaning though (I did the same). Six months leave isn't enough time to get a baby sufficiently weaned onto solids to leave them for FT working hours.

235 replies later and I have seen a few of these misrepresentation posts but no one’s actually corrected it with what she’s said that’s so to the contrary!?

Go on then - please enlighten us idiots.

My daughter was also a bottle refuser - didn’t take one until she was well over a year! I had endless frozen milk and she fed like a demon either end of the day.

She said current statutory maternity pay was too much business regulation. I don't think you can dispute that. Obviously she didn't say how much she wanted to deregulate it, but it can only be in the direction of less entitlement to maternity leave and/or less compulsory pay. Since current compulsory parental leave is not particularly generous this is quite enough to know where she stands.

Edit: don't be surprised by the way to see Starmer's government saying substantially the same thing any time now.

According to whom? I've heard the exact opposite many times from both third parties and civil servants in her departments (who were not necessarily that keen on the diligence). Michael Gove was not known for fostering useless underlings.

Disagreeing with a politician's policies by all means but do it by countering their policies with facts or different political positions rather than just cheap "rubbish" comments which are not evidenced in fact. If people just repeat tripe propagated on SM without checking basic facts (in this case what she actually said) then we lose the right to complain about the results.

Amazing (or not).

235 replies of which well over 200 have mindlessly accepted the BBC's misrepresentation of what was actually said as fact.

As far as I can see less than half a dozen of us actually checked the source interview for what she said.

If we can't be bothered to check basic facts for ourselves we don't deserve better governance or better politicians.

Yeah she can fuck right off.

Yes but after six months maternity the baby probably isn't even five and a half months and so won't even have started on solids yet. My bottle refusers were fine at nursery from 10 months, one even stopped breastfeeding and just drank no milk at all for a couple of months, but that's very different a to baby under six months, or one who's only just started on solids.

FWIW, I am not arguing for changes in maternity leave provision, just pointing out that women usually can return to work earlier and continue BFing IF they want to, which I did.

I'll be honest, I've seldom known this to be a problem in practice. Nurseries have ways of getting bottle refusers to take bottles, and if not, 7mo is old enough for a cup plus some solid food. Babies who don't take an awful lot of milk this way tend to adjust their balance a bit, eating most of their solids during the day and rather less milk, and then filling up more on the milk in the morning and evening with their mum. I think full time work is very hard with a baby this age, but part time was never an issue - and my eldest hated bottles! She did a cup and solid food when she was away from me.

Radio 5 live discussing this now. Usual gammons are texting in calling women entitled and claiming women are lying on the sofa during mat leave 🙄

@Gogogo12345 yes there is a qualifying period and then you're allowed 90% of your income for 6 weeks before going immediately to statutory minimum for the remainder. Which is £184 a week maximum.

That then ends entirely at 9 months.

Some companies pay enhanced but others don't. I worked for a very large company when I had my DD and got statutory minimum.

Plus she was notoriously incompetent as a minister. While that's something whose effects can be contained by civil servants in a government department, it's potentially disastrous in a Prime Minister.

And she wants to leave the ECHR

And only about 1% exclusively breastfed by then

This is what I remember! But surely even know you would have to work a certain amount of time before being able to claim maternity benefits

Mine were born 90, 94 and 03. Was self employed when having youngest so didn't get any maternity pay then

Badenoch wasn't just talking about mat pay, she was talking about all business regulation.

So sickness, H&S, flexible working, max working week, holiday pay....

She would like to see it all go, whilst keeping her wealth and privilege.

But again, that doesn't actually matter. Breastfeeding is the biological norm (sorry I usually hate that phrase in relation to breastfeeding) so women should be able to do so if they wish. Their need to return to work shouldn't factor into their plans.

Exactly, mine was at sea for months at a time.

Sometimes I think posters on here forget not every job is a Monday-Friday hybrid office/WFH job that allows flexible working and granny bringing the baby for a feed at lunchtime. And of course that not everyone has granny to look after the baby either.

Statutory policies need to consider all women.

What nonsense. We had DS in the UK and I went back to work when he was 8 months old. I had to save before having him.
This time, we live in Germany. I've just had DD and I'm entitled to 2000€/month (maternity pay + child benefit) for my year of maternity leave. That's still only about half of my net income but it's much better than what I had in the UK. Still, other mums look at me in horror when I say I'm going back full time after a year (we've got a nursery on site). I could stay home for 3 years but they wouldn't be paid and most people go back part time.
DH has also just fucked off so I'm now a single parent and could ask for spousal support from him since I don't actually have any obligation to be back in work until DD is 3.
It's much easier to have children here and still you have parents complaining that it's not enough.

MN is very unrepresentative on breastfeeding. Fewer than half babies are breastfed at all by six months.

Not every breastfed baby takes a bottle though, bottle refusal is very common.

You may disagree but you're wrong. We have an aging population and we need more young people. If there are not enough school places or doctors then we need to build / train more. You don't solve the problem of an aging population by discouraging people from having children.

I returned to work after 6 months leave with first 2 babies and after just 12 weeks with third (due to poor mat pay) and they all breastfed beyond 2 years and none had formula. DH took parental leave (largely unpaid). It is possible (I had an office job which made pumping breaks more accessible). 2nd baby actually wouldn’t take a bottle so I pumped and donated that milk to milk bank. He would just breastfeed in the evening/night instead!