UK maternity policy feels inadequate

[Bunny44]

I wanted to see how people manage in similar situations. I'm only going to receive statutary maternity leave, which I have to take from my estimated due date, so this is 6 weeks at 90% pay, then £726 per month there on.

I am a single parent (through being left while pregnant), I'm on a reasonablly high salary and have a mortgage, but I live in London so obviously costs are also high. The nurseries near me only take babies from 6 months, so I'm looking at potentially having 5 months of living off £726, which is half of my mortgage cost, let alone bills etc.

I'm trying my best to save as much as possible now and even taking on extra work, but I'm also aware that when I go back to work, nursery will cost £2000 a month so I need to keep back some of these saving as covering this is all going to be very tight.

I feel a bit aggreived as having spoken to most of my friends, nearly all of them, except a couple of self-employed ones, receive enhanced maternity leave at 26 weeks at full pay at least. My company (SMB in a male-dominated industry) told me before joining that they were introduced enhanced maternity leave, but then after joining said it's only for 12 weeks and you have to have been at the company for 2 years to qualify, so I didn't make this threshold.

I don't qualify for any extra government help, despite my income falling way behind what you would need to live off in the UK per month. It seems unreasonable I've been working and paying NI since I was 14 (I'm 35 now) and pay considerable taxes now and then when I actually need support it is not available. Also stautary maternity pay is just not enough when the woman is the only or main earner. You need at least 6 weeks, if not much more, to just physically recover. You could say I should find a company that has a better parental policy before getting pregnant, but it's really awkward asking in interviews and in my industry it doesn't seem to be well catered in this regard (and they complain that there are not enough women!)

I'm surprised about quite how difficult it is, and as metioned financially I have been in a pretty good position - how on earth do others manage if they are the only earner and don't get enhanced parental leave?

OP you're getting some unreasonable comments from people who make sport out of being rude to people on message boards. Sorry you're having to deal with those as well as terrible maternity pay!

Mine isn't very good either but it's at least enhanced. With my first child I used loads of annual leave as part of my maternity leave so that I was paid for longer (you get all your bank holidays back and accrue it as you go along so you should have quite a bit which you could use from 5 months of you're planning to go back at 6 months so that you are paid for your last month off). Hopefully your company does keeping in touch days which previous posters have mentioned - these were so good for me financially and I did all 10 offered as you only have to do a few hours of catching up with people/reading emails and get paid your normal rate for the full day - so would save these for when you are being paid the least/not being paid at all. I'm planning to take a full year so will start doing KIT days 2-3 times a month for my last few months.

Maternity leave in the UK is terrible and just because other countries are worse doesn't mean it's good. Our awful maternity and paternity leave policies have terrible knock on effects on physical and mental health and treat parenthood like a burden rather than what it actually is - literally sustaining the future of the human race.

I'm really lucky, my maternity leave isn't great but my husband's is amazing so he will be off for 6 months helping out literally with the baby and financially. We did this with our first as well and it means they have the most amazing bond. I only mention it (not to rub it in as I know you are in a difficult position yourself) because the reason his company offer it is because the evidence shows that having great parental policies promote physical and mental health as well as helping the company save money on recruitment because retention is so high (as well as value of keeping on existing staff so huge institutional knowledge maintained). There's so much evidence to show having good parental pay is good value but it falls on deaf ears sometimes.

I've not checked but just to give you a warning as my DD is 4 - the "free hours" or the subsidary as it actually is takes some money of your bill but it isn't a massive amount. This is because everything has gone up for early years providers so they charge you more for the other hours.

I have no idea why you’ve got so much stick on this thread OP. SMP is inadequate and should be better and I say that as someone with a husband who will keep working whilst I’m off. It must be so much harder on a single income.

It’s the dramatic drop in wages that makes it so difficult.

When I had my first and I had a group of friends who also had young babies everyone else had enhanced mat leave and they were appalled that I only got SMP. Most of them went back to work when the enhancement ran out instead of trying to get by on SMP.

I actually don’t know anyone in real life (apart from myself) who didn’t get enhanced maternity leave so I’m surprised that so many people on here seem to think it’s normal.

I’m pregnant with my 2nd now and know we’re going to need around 8k of savings to see us through followed by a very lean period of two in childcare.

We are above the savings threshold for universal credit which is a shame as I had hoped we could atleast get the childcare element to go towards DC1s nursery.

Also forgot to say, in case it hasn’t been mentioned elsewhere in the thread, don’t forget to do your Keep in Touch Days. You’re entitled to do up to 10 whilst on May leave and should be paid full daily salary for it, with less tax as you’ll only be earning SMP. I did 2 a month from when my daughter was 3 months old to top up SMP which helped a little although you would need to find childcare for those days.