Mummy Tax! Maternity pay cap ‘is an attack on pregnancy’
WOMEN who are pregnant with their first child or mothers planning to have another baby are among the biggest losers in the mini-Budget. Labour yesterday accused the Chancellor of slapping a £180 ‘Mummy Tax’ on women.
In his Autumn Statement, George Osborne revealed plans to limit the annual increase in most benefits to just one per cent per year for the next three years.
While giving the impression the move
‘At the front of the queue for cuts’
would largely affect the jobless, he failed to mention it will also hit statutory maternity pay.
At present, a mother is paid 90 per cent of her salary for the first six weeks of her maternity leave followed by £135.45 per week for the following 33 weeks.
Typically, the weekly amount is increased every April by the previous September’s consumer prices index measure of inflation.
This would have led to a 2.2 per cent rise, equal to around £3 a week.
But under the new system, it will rise by only £1.35.
Labour produced figures showing the measure would hit 232,000 expectant mothers who get statutory maternity pay.
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s spokesman on women, said: ‘New mums are paying a heavy price for George Osborne’s economic failure.
‘This real terms cut in maternity pay is effectively a £180 Mummy Tax on working women – and it’s bad for the whole family.’
A lower rate of maternity pay is likely to push some women back to work when they would prefer to be bonding with their infant. Labour predict maternity pay will be £ 180 lower for the 33- week period in 2015 than it would have been.
Fathers will also be hit because the smaller annual rise will affect statutory paternity pay, which is paid for two consecutive weeks at the same rate as the mother receives.
Parents will also see a rise of just one per cent in their child benefit when the three-year freeze ends in 2014.
Since April 2011, child benefit has been stuck at a rate of £20.30 per week for the first child and £13.40 per week for each subsequent child.
For parents with one child, this is the equivalent of an extra 20p a week – the average price of a nappy.
Alison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: ‘Despite all the talk, working families are once again at the front of the queue for spending cuts.’
Overall, Labour says women are picking up the bill for £867million of the £1billion of new direct tax, tax credit and benefit changes in the Autumn Statement.
Other cuts to hit families since the Coalition came to power in 2010 include the loss of the £250 child trust fund voucher, which used to be paid to all babies, and a £190 health in pregnancy grant designed to help women keep fit and eat well.
The Treasury rejected suggestions that women were being unfairly targeted, pointing out that the rise in the personal allowance for income tax and the largest-ever cash rise in the basic state pension will disproportionately benefit women.