Why isn’t maternity pay going up in line with inflation?

[workingfirsttimemum]

It seems everything from minimum wage to utility bills is going up with inflation, but not maternity pay. SMP going is £3 more a week… £3. I honestly don’t know how we will afford anything and it is really demoralising. Does anyone else feel this way?

Well child benefit is only going up 45p a week so…
Crap, isn’t it.

Yes!

I can't get my head around the fact that we're taxed on a benefit. It's criminal; we all pay into the national insurance pot for years and years so that we can take out of it when we need to.

And still nobody can tell me how much the £184 is actually going to be after tax so it's pointless trying to budget -- just having to wing it.

I know :( how long are you having off? I wanted the year but don’t know how we can afford the SMP months never mind the totally unpaid ones

I'm very lucky to have 26 weeks enhanced at full pay (for which I am very, very grateful) and will do 10 KIT days but will probably have to go back after that. I'll need to pay for childcare on KIT days so it's barely worth it, but never mind.

It's mad - childcare will be £900 a month for 18 months so I'm literally just going back to pay the mortgage and childcare and to keep my hand in. Won't get any government help beyond tax-free childcare until baby is 2 years old, don't have family nearby to help. 🫠

It's slightly cheaper for me to go back to work and pay for nursery than stay home on SMP. This baby will 100% forget who I am. It's fine though I have no regrets not a single one I promise.

That’s generous as far as maternity packages go but even so. I wish it was better funded. This is DC1 for us idk how we will afford another as like you say childcare is £££ 😢

I'm guessing that it's because they don't value families who are creating the next generation of workers and think that we are all scroungers who don't work hard enough.

It’s just so wrong. How can it not even be half minimum wage

Presumably because it depends on how much you earned in that tax year before going on maternity leave? It’s treated like normal PAYE income for tax purposes, so just imagine you’ve had a salary cut to that amount and then you should be able to work it out?

I think maternity pay went up about £8 per week last April.

This is likely to be our one and only, too -- unless childcare gets cheaper/we get more funded hours or we have a 5 year gap between pregnancies to let finances recover. 🫣

@OptimisticRealist2024 that’s because it depends on how much you have already earned, if you are on a normal tax code you will have your free pay and then the rest taxed at 20%, if you have earnt over your free pay you will be taxed. Tax is done in real time so will all be dependant on you and your prior earnings.

I assume it's because they expect there to be a man to financially support you.

The reason it isn't going up with inflation is due to them going by what inflation is in September and it was the lowest it had been in years then went back up

Why will you not get the funded 15hrs from 9months and then funded 30hrs from Sept?

Pretty much.

I don't live in England 🙃