Kemi Badenoch - "Maternity pay has gone too far" - what the...

[SomewhatContraryMary]

Read an article about Kemi Badenoch saying this on a interview with the Times radio today and I was gobsmacked. I find someone thinking that the current level of maternity pay (SMP) is excessive absolutely sickening and so out of touch with reality.

Sorry to be ignorant here, but do the employers pay maternity pay or the government? Who is she kind of protecting here with her views on it?
( I was last pregnant and working 32 years ago so very out of date with how it works)

Yeah. It's almost like politicians who are vocally gender critical aren't that keen on women's rights either.

The least I expect of Tories is to vaguely understand economics. They hate immigration and supporting maternity. Who's paying for the aging population? Because it's either young immigrants or young Brits.

Government pay statutory. Employers pay any enhanced. This with the ‘not all cultures are valid’ comments is gross.

Why we are even bothering with overblown Labour criticism with this sort of shite on our horizon is laughable.

Employers are refunded by HMRC for 92% statutory maternity pay (100% for those classed as small employers).

Quote:

Ms Badenoch first made her remarks about maternity pay on Times Radio, saying the benefit was a "function of tax".

"Tax comes from people who are working, we're taking from one group of people and giving to another," she added. "This, in my view, is excessive."

Challenged on saying maternity pay is "excessive", the former minister said: "I think it's gone too far, too far the other way, in terms of general business regulation, we need to allow businesses, especially small businesses, to make more of their own decisions.

https://news.sky.com/story/kemi-badenoch-claims-maternity-pay-remarks-were-misrepresented-13224825

Sounds like she was trying to say government rules are excessive, not the amounts of maternity pay?

I was so shocked about that coming from a woman. It is not enough by a long long way.

To me, this is her trying to show her donors / business that she will leave nothing sacred when it comes to employment rights - it's disgusting. She's taken one of the fundamentals for women and thrown it out there as open to debate. Despicable.

She’s posted the clip of what she said and has refuted the reports - not listened to it yet

As someone who had to go back to work at12 weeks in 1998 as rules and money around maternity were very different she is totally talking out her arse-

It's fine because on maternity they reduce your rent/mortgage and food is cheaper and bills are less and you don't need to buy any new things - hey wait

As if said parents don’t make that back in taxes in a matter of months… let alone the amount of tax you pay over a lifetime!

No no it's a coincidence.

Every time a coincidence.

I kind of agree employers do worry about the cost of maternity leave and it harms woman's progression. She was talking about the rules not the amount so I'm guessing it's the 12 months off and the right to return to the job she was getting at.

What do you expect? She's a Tory.

I get the point. Maternity pay regulation is a heavy additional cost burden on employers, and no doubt affects women being hired. career progression etc, partucularly in small businesses where its much harder to just absorb these costs, easily parachute maternity cover into positions etc like larger businesses can.

Whether its gone 'too far', idk. In terms of what businesses have to deal with in the UK I'd suggest SMP is least of their problems

Typical Tory