Stat maternity pay should be relative to earnings

[nappyvalley2024]

Why is statutory maternity leave a flat rate after the initial 6 weeks?

It would be fairer to have it linked to earnings for 3-6 months. Families in higher incomes will find the drop in pay more significant than those on lower incomes and would have been paying more NI.

This leads to higher earning women having to take shorter mat leaves than those on lower incomes.

SMP should be increased but this should be across the board. You are being paid a higher salary for your specialist skills and experience - but if you are having a baby and looking after it, you are doing the same 'job' as someone on minimum wage, so there is no reason for your 'salary' to be different. It's for your employer to decide if your specialist skills warrant employer-enhanced maternity pay, but this shouldn't fall on the state.

I really must be quite dim. There are ways to boost your stat mat pay. I'm following this thread with interest as I'm on mat leave myself and posted above. For others, if they qualify, they can get UC top ups. The pay isn't ideal and should be higher, but it isn't unworkable with a bit of common sense if you've laid some previous groundwork.

If you're earning above NWM when you go on mat leave even at statutory (I'm on stat pay and have been the whole time) it's not just the £700 you get there's also tax rebates. I don't earn enough to pay the higher rate of tax but earn just under it, and each month, I have had a nominal amount of tax back. Ie. Taking just under £800. This helps massively. Also, there are kit days available. I have worked some especially around Christmas or if I know I have something coming up that needs a bit cash and to keep on top of my role for when I return.

I completely understand that there will be many much, much worse off but if you're earning at least the median national wage it is doable. Tight and hard but manageable. Sacrifices need to made in most cases. And, is it fair? Yes it is because ultimately we have the choice. There are many who won't be able to bitch about mat leave pay due to pregnancy loss and infertility. Which will most often cost them money. I think there are some very insensitive opinions being presented here.

While I think it's good to raise awareness about poor pay it should be raised in all areas where it's simply not good enough to meet a basic standard of living. I feel with mat pay you can offset the temporary loss. And if you're a higher earner you should be able to get back on your feet quicker.

Also, we as a while begrudge taxes and paying more. The system as it is can barely support itself without raising taxes and national insurance (don't even get me started on the autumn or today's upcoming budget) it simply cannot happen unless there's more going into the system. And, to be frank other areas need to addressed before stat mat pay.

Don't be ridiculous. Why would you presume pensioners don't have to worry about housing costs? Not everyone owns their own property.

What bubble do you live in?

If people want to be able to retire in old age and society to function, then they want women to have children.

The birth rate in the UK is not high enough to keep up with the cost of people retiring, so we clearly need to do more to facilitate families having children and not incentivise women to put off having children until they're too old to have the number of children they want to have or to avoid it altogether if they actually want children but feel they can't afford it at all.

Mat pat should be higher all round.

Even if you own a house, housing costs are still a factor. My gran has a pension and a mortgage free house. She has still had to find money to pay for a new roof and maintanance costs.

Where we live you receive 80% of your income upto a maximum of around £65 per day for 390 days, the final 90 days are then paid a low fixed rate of around £14 per day.

In the UK higher earners are more likely to have savings, a partner who is a higher earner and access to a fairly decent work based maternity package. Lower earners are the ones who suffer as often there is less ability to save, its likely a partner has a fairly similar income and maternity packages are likely to be statutory and nothing more. I do think SMP should be increased in the UK, I do also think we need to look at women being able to move over to sick pay (often more generous) after a certain amount of time if they have a complex recovery. At the moment there will be lower earning women going back to work before they are physically fit to do so, where as under normal circumstances they would be eligble to be signed off on sick leave.