To think statutory maternity pay should be the same amount as the state pension?

[BridgertonToBe]

I don’t have children, probably never will. But I do think SMP is shockingly low, and if the government is really worried about the birth rate they should look at this.

Many women on maternity only get SMP and no enhanced package from their employer. It’s current set at a maximum of £187.18 a week for 39 weeks. If mothers want to be off for 52, it will be unpaid.

The new state pension is £230.25 a week. While those on maternity may have a partner to support them, they probably won’t have any other income while many pensioners also have a private pension alongside the SP.

AIBU to think that if £230.25 is needed by all pensioners over 66 for a basic standard of living (who probably have less outgoings than a young family), SMP should be the same?

If we can afford to pay the state pension to every pensioner for the rest of their lives out of NI, we can afford to support new working mothers birthing and raising the next generation of workers for a short amount of time. The financial hit is a big deterrent for people having children. I also think SMP should be paid from birth until the child’s first birthday.

No, having a child is a choice, and people should budget accordingly. It doesn't seem fair for the state to fund people to have a paid year off work, which could amount to multiple years off if people have multiple children.

I am by no means anti benefits, and support disabled people who can't work having access to benefits, so I am not some sort of Tory/reform person who thinks people shouldn't get benefits at all. Just not for lifestyle choices.

I am a parent as well and wouldn't expect a paid year off work at pension rates.

Pension is not a BENEFIT. It is something pensioners have paid into all their working life, not worked for 5 years then expect a good weekly wage whist on maternity leave.Forward plan where money is concerned. You have plenty of time to buy most of what you need before the baby arrives.

The difference is that majority of pensioners have contributed through NI for years but you are entitled to maternity leave after a short number of years in a job so you have not contributed much. I would agree that both are low.

SMP doesn’t compare too unfavourably to the old state pension which is about £176 per week, and is still the only income of many older pensioners. Neither are a king’s ransom but, in the case of pensioners, options are limited, and many bills are just as high whether you’re a family or an elderly person living alone.

Pension is not a BENEFIT

YES they are

Surely the difference pensioners can’t go back to work but the parent can? I couldn’t afford to live on
maternity allowance so I went back to work at 5 months. Didn’t occur to me to think the amount was too small. My view is any money should go into subsiding childcare costs rather than then direct to parents.

It is a state benefit.

no pot of money has been paid into to get it. Just qualifying years of you working but otherwise no correlation. The benefit can be stopped at any point by any government just like any other benefit.

State Pension is a contribution based benefit.

Not all pensioners have paid in.

If reform get ignored it will be got rid of totaly

There is not a 'panic' happening. There are plenty of people in this country and on the planet in general. The current model of each generation being bigger than the one before in order to pay pensions is not sustainable indefinitely and we'll have to think of another way as a society. The rhetoric about babies and the alleged 'panic' is coming from the far right and their Kinder, Kirche, Küche agenda.

Am I correct that in case SMP is the only source of income then there will be a lot of other top ups and parents would get child benefit too? so their total income would be more than £180.

Also if employers are forced to pay more then it's going to way much more difficult for women of childbearing age to find jobs.

completely agree.

The thing is that AI is already reshaping the world of work in the most prolific way. There will be epic reduction of desk based jobs in the next 5 years. There won't be a need for workforce in it's current size. Plenty of wealth will still be generated, but most likely it will be accumulated by the same top 0.01%.

So what will be really needed is an army of carers, and we still have sufficient numbers of them even if it's 1:1 ration of a pensioner to a working age adult.

Yes but there’s no pot of money that anyone has paid those contributions into. Your contributions just go into the tax pot. The government can simply stop pensions at any point regardless of anyone’s contributions just like any other benefit

Yes, I agree. That’s why I called it a contributions based BENEFIT, not a personal savings account.

Well if it is a benefit (I don’t believe it is) it’s a contributory benefit. Like 6 months JSA. I’ll get my pension in five years. I contributed for 43 years to get it.

I am also entitled to claim the 6 months JSA.

But contrary to popular belief on here, I couldn’t face 35 hours a week searching for jobs for a pittance. If I wanted 6 months more money, I’d have retired 6 months later.

So you think strangers looking after a baby is better than a parent?

State Pension is described as a benefit in UK legislation so your beliefs on the issue aren’t really important.

Many people didn't have the income to invest monies to be deferred to old age. If you were on the minimum wage were did you find the money to pay into a pension, you didn't. Its only recently that employers have to contribute to a pension for you and that there were tax breaks if you contributed too.

I will however agree that when you are 20 and being a pensioner seems so far away, you tend to want the cash in your hand now rather than in 40+ years time. When I was 20, I never considered any potential employer pension contributions as my wage, it never crossed my mind. But then most of my employers at that time didn't have to provide pension schemes. My niece recently got offered two jobs, one in the Civil Service at £45,000 plus 29% pension contributions or one at £47,000 plus 3% pension contribution. She opted for the £47,000 now despite being told how much of a better deal the civil service one was. She couldn't consider the impact it would have when she retired as it is too far off in the future and £47K was better for mortgage offers than £45K. Just like I did, she is living for her NOW and not her future.

Thank you for telling me I’m unimportant. Hopefully it made you feel better than you obviously do.

The Tories deemed it as a benefit because they see people as being as unimportant as you do.

I think seeing people as unimportant is psychotic, and probably a result of a chaotic upbringing.

But you are missing the point. SMP is a temporary situation, you can go back to work on full wage and maybe get bonuses and promotion etc. When you are on SP that is your lot, there is no going back, no option for a bonus or payrise, you can't defer financial decisions until you are back at work.

And you get taxed twice if you are over the tax level, so you got taxed when you earnt the money to pay into your pension scheme and then you get taxed when you get the money from your pension pot!

Again, I am not saying parents don't struggle on SMP and that there shouldn't be more support but comparing yourself to pensioners is wrong because they are totally different circumstances.

Ok, sure, let’s introduce belief based definitions for the benefits system in case people want to self identify out of claiming them.

I know people who haven’t claimed their pension as they don’t need to. Sorry you don’t.

Small point but you are not taxed on the money that goes in to your pension pot. It is taken from gross income. You are only taxed when you take it out ( if over tax threshold)

This is so wrong on many fronts, how are pensioners supposed to survive? And lets not forget that they provide a great deal of free child and elder care too?

SMP and SP bear no correlation to each other at all. Just look at the statistics about pensions. This is just ageist twaddle.