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.

But that's exactly op's point!

We, as a society, need young people to have children ... who grow up and go to work (or run businesses) and pay the taxes that fund our pensions

With SMP (and support for parents) so poor in this country, fewer and fewer people can afford to bring up a family. It's something we should ALL be worried about.

Are you serious? You are either being deliberately obtuse or you don't actually know what retirement is.
It's a shame i won't be around to hear what the posters who are oh-so-keen to strip pensioners' incomes becase it doesn't affect them yet will think about things when they are pensioners.
I imagine they will have a different opinion then.

They got 18 weeks maternity leave, no free child care, and now after managing to work their way through all that and still pay contributions to the NHS, you think they don’t deserve a pension?

I never said there was.

They also didn’t claim the benefit of free child care.

I have worked for 45 years paying national insurance to pay for my SP through national insurance. I still have another 6 years to due to the pension age being raised. I agree SMP isn't great and never has been. It wasn't fantastic when I had my family. When you have a family you have to adjust to the financial changes. Simple as that.
For those saying today's workers are paying for my pension that isn't true I've already paid for my own !

I think it’s fine. Why do we need more babies if there aren’t enough jobs for the people we already have?

So why say SMP claimants should get the same as those entitled to SP - what is the correlation? Pension is a deferred income that we have paid to get.

@BridgertonToBeno that is incorrect, unfortunately.

I never said they didn't. Nobody has said they don't deserve a pension.
But without young people working and paying taxes there won't be any money to pay pensions with.

Common misconception that.

The NI payments you have made (are still making) pay for your parents' pensions.

With birth rates falling there are fewer and fewer working age people paying the taxes that will pay for our pensions. It's a demographic time bomb that all western governments are worried about.

Two periods of unemployment/loss income due to life events, both of which rely on government support. That’s the relativity.

No it’s not.

With all due respect, how much was your mortgage or rent 30 years ago? I’m going to hazard a guess it’s no where near that of today’s mothers, who have to pay extortionate prices to keep a roof over their heads. Who benefited? Your generation.

When you were having children, the cost of living was as such that one working parent was common. Now most families need two working parents, often both full time.

It’s not the same. I wish the 50+ generation understood the difficulties this younger generation is having. They seem to dismiss it as “we all had it” but that’s just not true.

Again, I didn’t say that!

No one is saying otherwise. But todays pensioners didn’t cause the housing or cost of living crises.

We also got 18 weeks maternity pay, had massive mortgage interest rates and could only borrow 3 x 1 salary + 1 x times the next over 25 years and didn’t get free child care.

Swings and roundabouts.

In addition, we all didn’t have numerous toilets, rooms for every child and didn’t change our furniture every 5 minutes, have our children in clubs every night, or have numerous holidays and individual cars.

We cut our cloth.

Just because companies do it, doesn't mean it isn't illegal. It is illegal to discriminate in recruitment based on age and/or gender. I've no doubt that employers do it - they're awful - but it is illegal.

We shouldn't let some employers discriminate actions affect putting policies into place that support people. America uses the same excuse for why they don't offer any maternity leave at all

Thats exactly what I meant - it’s not swings and roundabouts at all! It’s not comparable.

No one’s saying you shouldn’t have a pension, we’re saying mothers should have better SMP. It’s not a case of who wins, it’s a case of everyone being able to afford to live a comfortable life, with essential bills for housing and food being affordable.

It’s not just a case of “cutting your cloth” like many of the older generation like to believe. Jobs used to be for life. Utilities were affordable. Housing, whilst having periods of high interest and limited borrowing, has increased exponentially meaning your generation of home owners are now sitting on £hundreds of thousands of pounds of unearned money whilst those in their 20s have to live with parents or rent rooms.

Im not suggesting you don’t get a pension, im suggesting more needs to be done to support the younger generations.

I still think young people want too much too soon.

I agree the housing costs are dire, thank Thatcher and right to buy.

By the way it’s not unearned! We used our EARNINGS to pay for the homes we now own.

Don't be daft. Having kids is a lifestyle choice, getting older isn't.

You are missing the point, pensioners have paid into the system their entire working life, its not a freebie, its still deferred income.

The question was why you think its reasonable to compare SMP to SP - ther eis no correlation?

That comparison doesn’t hold. The State Pension isn’t a welfare payment for a temporary loss of income — it’s deferred earnings built up over an entire working lifetime. Maternity Pay is a short‑term income‑replacement benefit for a voluntary life event. One is an entitlement you’ve contributed towards for decades; the other is a support payment for a chosen circumstance. They’re not comparable in purpose, structure, or funding

Yes, today’s NI payers fund today’s pensions — that’s how a pay‑as‑you‑go system works. But that doesn’t mean pensioners ‘didn’t pay in’. They paid NI for decades on the understanding that when they reached pension age, the next generation would fund theirs. It’s a long‑term, contribution‑based contract between generations, not a short‑term benefit like SMP.

The State Pension is contributory. You only qualify by paying NI for many years.

The system is pay‑as‑you‑go. Your NI didn’t sit in a pot with your name on it — it funded the pensions of the generation before you.

But your contributions weren’t meaningless. They earned you the right to receive a pension later. That’s the social contract: you pay in for decades, and you get it back when you retire.

SMP is not like that. It’s a short‑term benefit for a voluntary event, funded mostly by employers and reimbursed by government. You don’t “earn” SMP through 35 years of contributions.

So the fact that NI is used in real time doesn’t change the fundamental nature of the State Pension: it is deferred income earned through long‑term contributions.

Think of it like this, you put your coins in a bank and the bank uses that to fund finance for others, when you then get YOUR money back, its not the actual coins and notes you paid in, its the equivalent of it but it is the fruits if your hard work.

Saying pensioners ‘didn’t pay in’ because NI is pay‑as‑you‑go is like saying you didn’t pay for your house because your mortgage payments went to the bank’s other customers. The mechanism doesn’t change the fact you met the contribution requirements.

And that is all fair comment but why compare to SP, that is the point we are making.

Making an argument for a more affordable system for wannabe parents and we will all support it, but basically comparing them to pensioners who have had an entire life to try and save for their retirement is just not a relatable comparison.