Maternity pay has gone too far

[EasterIssland]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c781m9v4255o

apologies if there is another thread about it.
havent seen one.

im lucky enough to have a good salary that would allow me saving beforehand . Statutory maternity pay would mean around 20-30% of my salary. Is this too far? It’s one of the many reasons why we decided to only have one. I felt really vulnerable when I was on maternity leave and didn’t feel I kept having spare cash every month. I do understand what she means tho , the sooner we’re back the less we get from the government and more taxes we pay. Coming from a woman hurts even more not being recognised the sacrifices we do whilst we are on maternity leave

She’s ridiculous. Maternity pay should be more and for longer.

This is an absolute crock of misogynistic bullshit, exactly what I would expect of the tory party tbf.

I thought we had a falling birth rate and that’s why we were opening the gates to encourage immigration?

If we want to encourage women to have (more) children this is not the way to do it.

That woman is full of vile opinions, but this one isn’t all bad. Six months statutory maternity pay would be fair and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with expecting people to go back to work or be supported by their partners at that point.

This made me so cross. Maternity pay doesn’t go far enough in this country. It shouldn’t be about herding women back into the workplace, but supporting parents to do the best for their children. I know that some women are desperate to get back to work and that, for many, breastfeeding isn’t right/doesn’t work for them, but mothers with 9 month olds whose main source of comfort and nutrition is breastfeeding, shouldn’t be forced to part from their babies because SMP has run out. I couldn’t have coped returning at 9 months. My baby was a rubbish sleeper and took a little while to get the hang of solids. It would have been traumatic for both of us.

Have you exclusively breastfed?

Maybe she is secretly of the opinion that only ' Rich ' people should have children. I've heard other more ordinary people express these views and this is just a veiled way of saying it?

It's a natural extension of limiting child benefit to two kids only. Make having babies more and more expensive.

The problem is that we have a shrinking population anyway. We should be encouraging more babies, not fewer. From an economic standpoint at least.

This

The countries with good levels of female participation in the workforce are the ones with better maternity pay, not worse.

Fortunately kemi badenoch isn't in power so we can just let her witter on about whatever and ignore. The conservatives are likely to come out with a lot of this right wing crap as they lost a lot of votes to reform & think that's the direction they need to go in to get back in power.

If they're going to get rid of maternity pay they'll have to further lower the age at which they'll help families out with childcare or they'll end up having to pay more people more benefits, alternatively lower retirement age so grandparents can help out with childcare.

It's a ridiculous suggestion.

If the government want to raise the birth rate and encourage women to give birth to more future tax payers, they need to support families to do this.

Most studies show that childcare for little ones, nursery in particular, has essentially no benefits to the child unless their parents are doing a really really poor job. Good quality childcare doesn't do any harm.

From about 2/3 years onwards, early education does start showing value in terms of language and socialisation. Before that, childcare is a convenience in allowing women to return to work/minimise career disruption.

Can you imagine what views she has on funded childcare if this is her view of maternity pay. That woman is disgusting.

Usually behind ideas like this are a load of stuffy men who think its best women don't work after having a family.

Look at the US. Lack of good maternity pay means many women simple exit the workforce entirely. Its not a good thing.

What’s the relevance of this?

No one is going to get rich on mat pay. She is vile and I really hope she is not the next party leader

Totally disagree. There aren’t enough nursery places for everyone to go back to work after six months. Childcare is ridiculously expensive and partners may not earn enough to afford to support themselves, children and partner. Partners may not be on the scene for many reasons.
The world you live in must be very different from mine.

Statutory maternity pay is “excessive”? Wow!
The UK compares itself to America only a lot so in that sense people are usually quick to point out how bad the US is therefore how progressive the UK is but compared to most western counties the UK doesn’t even have particularly progressive mat pay!

But anyway, no I don’t remotely agree that 9 months on incredibly limited statutory pay is excessive. Nor do I think harking back to a time when “women didn’t get mat pay but had more babies” is anything to aim for.

Where are these studies as most of the studies I’ve read suggest that good quality childcare is best for low and middle socioeconomic groups. Only the highest do not benefit from child care.

Totally disagree. This country is overpopulated. Not enough housing, not enough school places. Not enough doctors.

Despicable.

I see it as internalised misogyny. Child rearing is actually super important for a civilised society. It’s a tough job and because it falls to women mostly, especially in the early years, it’s scuppers or compromises or careers as well. She a misogynistic twat.

‘There was a time when there was no maternity pay and women were having more babies’… yes correct and those women weren’t working, didn’t have contraception or any kind of independence nor freedom! What utter utter rubbish.

We live in a society now where women are often breadwinners and dual income households are the norm-and the country needs as many people working as possible. Less maternity pay will probably result in fewer women going back to work at all.

A look at the UK’s excessive maternity policy.