Maternity pay system criticised by Reform study

By Melanie Defries, Nursery World, 15 July 2009

Working families should receive a flat payment of £5,000 over six months in place of statutory maternity pay while they are taking parental leave, according to the think-tank Reform.

In its report Productive Parents , Reform criticises current parental leave arrangements for treating fathers as an 'irrelevance' and for being more generous towards rich mothers than poor mothers. It says Britain has one of the most old fashioned parental leave systems in the developed world. The report says that mothers earning £50,000 and taking six months leave receive nearly £8,000 from the taxpayer, whereas mothers who earn the minimum wage,...

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