Maternity campaign to probe impact of cuts

Valuing Maternity to investigate the impact of welfare reform on pregnant women and new mothers.

The Valuing Maternity campaign, which is made up of advice providers such as Citizens Advice, specialist charities like Maternity Action and trade unions and is asking women to come forward with their stories about how cuts to welfare benefits have affected them and their families

Valuing Maternity say that in last year’s Autumn Statement the Chancellor announced that Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance would increase by 1 per cent per year over the next three years.

This was below inflation and would result in a reduction in income of up to £221.87 by 2015, compared to indexing in line with inflation.

They say that this reduction in statutory payments comes on top of a series of recent cuts to maternity and child benefits, for example the Health in Pregnancy Grant, a £190 payment to all mothers in the later stages of pregnancy, which ceased in 2011.

The Sure Start Maternity Grant (SSMG), a one-off payment of £500 for parents on lower incomes to assist with the costs of a new baby, was restricted from 2011 to first babies and multiple births.

Child Benefit, a weekly payment of £20.30 a week for the first child and £14.30 for subsequent children, was frozen from 2011 and will be restricted from 2013. The payment was previously paid to all parents and will now be phased out where one parent earns between £50,000 and £60,000.

Valuing Maternity believes that the cumulative loss of benefits and reductions in maternity payments leaves women with up to £911.87 less during pregnancy and maternity leave. For women on low incomes, this is a clearly a significant amount of money.

They believe that concerns about finances may be forcing women to cut short their maternity leave, and that added stress during and after pregnancy could lead to more cases of post natal depression.

They point out that mothers also face new costs in exercising employment rights; new legislation brought in by the coalition government means that from 2013 it will cost £1,200 for a woman to take a pregnancy discrimination claim to the employment tribunal.

Valuing Maternity say research from 2005 found that 30,000 women each year lost their jobs as a result of unlawful pregnancy discrimination. This is 8 per cent of all pregnant women in the workforce.

They say Maternity Action and other advice agencies have observed an increase in pregnancy discrimination since the onset of the recession.

Valuing Maternity is continuing to push for parents to have the right to return to the same job after taking leave.

They want better protection against unfair selection for redundancy during pregnancy and leave, and are also exploring new ways to strengthen the hand of parents negotiating with their employers to balance work and caring responsibilities.

Valuing Maternity is working with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to prepare guidance on breastfeeding on returning to work but will continue to push for the legal right to breastfeed at work.

They will also be documenting and critiquing the impact of austerity policies on NHS maternity services and services for pregnant women and new parents.

Valuing Maternity is urging supporters to sign up to the campaign.

Join them on Twitter using the #ValuingMaternity hashtag.

Story published on Women's Views on News, 25 October 2013.