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 had to walk a fine line, revealing sufficient of her views to Tory members to get elected leader while not revealing too much to the ordinary voters. She should have stuck to health and safety, as most of the population seem contemptuous of attempts to keep them alive at work.

I just checked. In 2006, my boss was earning £55,000.

Now I’m the boss and I’m earning £52500, and doing a lot more of the work than she did.

The calculator reckons I should be on £92,000. Probably correct.

SMP is better than nothing

I was shocked by this and I think she’s toasted her party with this and then backtracking once she realised she’d f’d up. We saved hard when I was pregnant as we both knew maternity pay was a pittance. We weren’t eligible for any other benefits. I got a measly £450 a month. My DH had to heavily subsidise this and we just in so managed. I felt I had to go back after 6 months just to bring in some much needed money. Again, we had to find money for 3 days in nursery and that was like an additional mortgage. I really can’t blame people for not wanting any children. If you work you are battered from every angle. Fathers also need way more paternity leave. I had a C-section and unfortunately wasn’t fully back on my feet by the time my DH had to go back to work. It’s just rotten. Yes we managed but so many things could be improved.

There'll still be hard core Kemi worshippers falling over themselves to make excuses for her.

Don't forget there are a large number of business owners and managers who actually agree with her, even if they are usually circumspect about saying so. Her statement may well be an advantage to her in the Tory leadership election.

As it is women (in some professions) must dim their career aspirations when they have children. In my profession, the top positions are mostly held by women without children. Women who went off on maternity leave were treated badly. When one mum returned was not given any work and the person hired as maternity cover was given a permanent contract until the new mum resigned. We need progressive politicians who understand maternity leave is temporary and that keeping women in the workplace ultimately will mean higher revenue for the government.

Nothing is a pretty low bar to benchmark against.

So financially I could only afford to have my company maternity pay which was 16 weeks of full pay (due to my long length of service) and SMP was so pitiful it wasn’t an option! I managed 20 weeks off work with annual leave and accumulated bank holidays and I worked until my due date (daughter was14 days late.) I went into Labour with my waters breaking at the beginning, 48 hours later my daughter was in distress and I was in shock, and at just 2cms dilated despite having a drip to speed up labour, I had a life saving emergency Caesarian.

I was very poorly afterwards, I had an infection in my scar (from the surgery) and a serious infection in my womb, which a few days after returning home saw me haemorrhaging blood so badly that at first I thought I had wet myself, it was caused by my distressed daughter who did a poo inside me before she was born.

It almost certainly took 12 weeks to recover, and my daughter was not a sleeper by night!

I breastfed her exclusively and she refused a bottle, even though I was on crazy antibiotics which made me feel appalling. Trust me we tried everything to persuade her to have some formula, but she absolutely refused!

At 20 weeks post birth I returned to full time work out of necessity, we needed to secure a mortgage as our Landlord had issued a ‘No fault eviction’ as she had gotten into debt!

So as I returned to the office full time, exhausted and sleep deprived we completed the sale of our house, organised a week of reworking work, and remedial pluming and moved in! I had to have returned to work for the mortgage (achieved because I burned my annual leave for a month)

My daughter started full time nursery, still refused a bottle but would glut down breastmilk as if she was a Viking, I expressed milk twice a day in the office medical room to ensure she had a good supply the next day. She was still breastfed until she was two years old, literally nursing her in the morning until we left the house and as soon as I got home because I thought my boobs were going to explode!

The fact that I went through this because SMP was so dreadful, and so much worse than my salary tells me that SMP is woefully inadequate, and for women who has an income that is essential to paying bills an absolute insult!

It’s not linked to salary, it’s not enough to support a household!

I can’t tell you how much I am disgusted with Kemi!!!!

Shame on her!

No mother should ever have to go through an experience like mine!

Motherhood should not just be about surviving!

Women should be supporting other women!

Not when you’re an emergency foster carer waiting for social services to sort out your fostering allowance. Four months we waited for payments to start and had to use our own savings to feed and clothe a child placed with us

Whilst it’s unfortunate your scenario , it’s not a race to the bottom either. New mums getting worse maternity leave wouldn’t make your scenario better. We should fight for make things better , not for those that have better options than us to have it worse

Is there a minimum you have to earn to be eligible for SMP? Can part timers get it?

• earn on average at least £123 a week.

I believe if you earn below you still get something tho unsure how much

And the shrinking birthrate...

So you could be £50 a week better off on maternity leave?hmm

No. It’s £183 or 90% of your salary. Whichever is lowest.

someone earning 2k a week earns £183
someone earning £120 gets £108

I don't understand why I only qualified for SMP due to changing jobs right before I got pregnant. I had worked in schools for years and years before that, all the money comes from the same place (DfE) so changing jobs shouldn't matter!

Remember she was talking to Tory Party members. That's no time to be talking sense or using logic. It's wasted on them.

We'll be living in a Handmaid's tale society soon if these women don't stop trashing women and women's rights.

When I had my DCs I got 3m full pay and 3 months statutory. I went back after 3months cos we couldn't afford for me (breadwinner) not to be in work. Admittedly I went back on 4 days a week, but still it was hard. I was pregnant again before by DD was 6 months old, so the second time round it was even harder and because of my DHs health I had to go back full time. He became a SAHP.

Maternity pay is better these days, but still nowhere like it is in Nordic countries. Our society should be aiming to improve not regress...

@SometimesCalmPerson good for you but my exclusively breastfed baby never took a bottle. We tried every day for 7 weeks, and weekly after that but he refused every single time. When starting nursery at 11 months he ate and drank absolutely nothing for the first month despite everyone’s best efforts. He would have ended up really unwell if that had happened at 6months!

Really not sure how this is relevant to a discussing around the amount and length of statutory maternity pay.

Oh look someone reads the daily mail and think having kids is a money maker for women.
hmmmm indeed.

Because people are complaining about how hard it is being on maternity pay/leave not being long enough. There are worse things than not being paid a lot to have a child and then spend 9-12 months off work with it

Again it’s not a race to the bottom. How would me having less money / time have improved your scenario ?

I’m not saying it would. What I am saying is there are people worse off than moms on SMP and getting no financial assistance at all so your situation is marginally better than theirs