My second child was born 20 months ago and we still haven’t paid off the credit card debt that we had to take on while while my wife was on maternity leave.
I’m not saying we struggle (we do just fine, and arguably could have made a couple of lifestyle changes if we were really concerned, but we’re in the fortunate position to decide to pay it off slowly while prioritising great experiences for the kids). But when you have a leadership candidate successfully grabbing headlines (https://lnkd.in/ecpuaYqc) with the dumbest possible view, that statutory maternity in the UK somehow goes “too far”, it’s worth actually looking at the reality for most new parents.
We’re in a very privileged position where our circumstances are much better than most people. We’re a dual-income family where both of us are in senior roles. More importantly, we’re lucky enough to both work at places that offer far better maternity and paternity policies than statutory.
For context: Amoria Group’s Family Forming policy offers 16 weeks at full pay followed by 16 at 50% pay, followed by statutory maternity, and 2 weeks fully paid paternity, followed by 2 weeks at half pay.
Statutory maternity after the first six weeks is £184.03/week. Statutory paternity the same, but only for 2 weeks. £184.03/week can be roughly calculated as 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘰𝘯 - which is why so many new mothers go back after just a few months and 68% of new fathers don’t even take the full fortnight (1 in 3 don’t take any paternity at all).
We went in with our eyes open, knowing that we would have to cut back and rely on credit cards for a while at the end. But even in our very fortunate positions, we weren’t able to do what we wanted.
My wife went back to work after 9 months. She wanted to wait a year but it simply wasn’t possible. Because her pay for her final month of maternity came to a total of £𝟰𝟬.
Yes, really.
With another mouth to feed, childcare for our first-born, mortgage, bills and all the rest, we’d effectively dropped from a dual to a single income household. Which, if you’ve been paying attention for the last 30 years, you’ll recognise as being far less ideal than it used to be. We could manage, but only by relying on credit cards that we knew we wouldn’t start paying off until she went back to work.
9 months is far more than many people are able to take. 9 months is what we could do 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 we’re lucky enough to have good jobs and be supported by workplaces that go above the statutory requirements. But many - most - don’t offer that. They offer the basic, minimum legal requirement, and if you took away that statutory regulation, many would offer even less (source: America).
The UK’s maternity and paternity regulations are the worst in Europe. They are far from “too far”.
So, in summary: Shut up Kemi Badenoch
#FamilyForming #Maternity #Paternity #TalkingAboutMoney #ProgressingLivesEverywhere #ShutUp
Chief Executive at Elizabeth Finn Homes | Board Member Care England | Trustee Helen Bamber Foundation
2moThis decision was universally supported by our Board and our amazing owners Turn2us - Tackling Financial Insecurity Together - and it’s already making a difference. Here’s some feedback from one of our new dads: “As recently becoming a father I can't thank Elizabeth Finn Homes enough for their support and understanding. This has meant I have been able to support my partner in the early challenging days, as well as being able to bond with my son. We both learned together about the baby, how to raise a child, and the approach we would take as parents and how to be part of that process together.“ the policy is an investment - but impact like that is priceless!