Recommendation 11

HM Government Deferred

The Government wants new mothers to be able to take time away from work in the later stages of their pregnancy and in the months following childbirth, in the interests of their own and their baby’s health and wellbeing. That is why the UK has a system of parental leave and pay entitlements which are designed to support parents to take time away from work to care for their children, whilst retaining an attachment to the labour market enabling them to return to work when they can. There are two types of maternity pay available to pregnant working women which are Statutory Maternity Pay (“SMP”), paid by employers to qualifying employed women, and Maternity Allowance (“MA”) paid by the Department for Work and Pensions to eligible women (including the self-employed and women in employment who are not eligible for SMP). The Government carefully considered the number of keeping in touch (“KIT”) days available to employed and self-employed women on maternity leave and chose a number that would enable a woman to keep in touch with her employer or if she is self-employed, with her business whilst also protecting her right to have time alone with her baby. The 10 KIT days enable women to do some work without affecting their maternity pay and could also help ease the return to work. There is some flexibility in how the 10 days are used as there is the choice to work for single days, in blocks of two or more days, or 10 days consecutively. For women receiving MA, it is the number of days that are worked over the 10 days allowed that determines whether there will be any deductions from MA for the days worked or whether MA stops altogether. If a woman’s working pattern changes from what it was before she had her baby, for example from full time to part-time, then she could still be paid a proportion of her MA for the remainder of her Maternity Allowance Period. To further clarify, for each day worked over the 10 KIT days, that day will be deducted from the MA payment, until such time as the woman returns to her regular pattern of work, or her Maternity Allowance Period ends. SMP forms part of a package of employment rights and protections available specifically to the employed. These rights do not extend to the self-employed because of the difference in the nature of the employment, as such they are not directly comparable. However, we do acknowledge the challenges that the self-employed parents and those in more precarious forms of employment face and we have noted the concerns the report has raised around women on maternity leave in the music industry and the ability to undertake freelance work. Government is committed to making life better for families and in the Plan to Make Work Pay it promised to review the parental leave system. On 1 July, we announced the launch of the Parental Leave and Pay Review. The review presents a much-needed opportunity to consider our approach to the system of parental leave and pay, with all current and upcoming parental leave and pay entitlements in scope of the review. The Government is also considering the Committee’s report on “Equality at work: Paternity and shared parental leave” and will respond in due course. We thank the Committee for your continued work on these topics and welcome further engagement on improvements to the system. We hope you will agree that the review is the right route to consider them.