SMP is going up... by £3 a week.

[koleahg]

I'm absolutely stunned that the increase is so low given the boost to minimum wage and other benefits. Women are actually going to be worse off next year because bills and the COL is still going up. I'm still on occupational maternity pay (which isn't anything close to my full wage but better than nothing) but honestly can't imagine how we'll afford it when I move to SMP next year. Anyone else think it's too low?

I had seen a headline saying it was essentially a real time cut, but hadn't seen the figure. £3 a week is ridiculous, what an insult.

Lots of occupations haven't had any pay increase this year and some have had pay freezes for years. My organisation certainly haven't done any pay rises this year and it was a minimal increase last year.

At the end of the day, there's no money so a slight increase is better than nothing. Having a child is a choice and should be well planned for in advance. I know unexpected pregnancies can and do happen but at the end of the day the majority should ensure they are in a suitable financial situation to have a child. Harsh I know but unfortunately in this financial climate it's true.

It is an insult isn't it :(

Yes but having children shouldn't be prohibitively expensive

It's prohibitively expensive to do pretty much anything these days and people don't always utilise what money they do have particularly well e.g. matching Christmas PJ's which won't fit kids the year after, huge piles of Christmas gifts when less would be absolutely fine.

In many countries they only get a very short period of time off work for mat leave which is much more affordable. Our mat leave is pretty generous but there's only so much that employers and we as tax payers can do to fund increases to SMP. It's up to people to make savings and plan well to have children. It should be the most well thought through decision people ever make.

I haven't had a pay rise for years. Private sector. Meh.