PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
Universal Credit, Maternity Allowance & SMP (3 May 2020)

That this House is deeply concerned by the different treatment of Maternity Allowance and Statutory Maternity Pay by the Department of Work and Pensions in the calculation of Universal Credit awards, with Statutory Maternity Pay being treated as earned income and largely disregarded under the work allowance and 63 per cent taper, but Maternity Allowance being treated as unearned income and deducted from any Universal Credit award pound for pound; notes that this can leave women in receipt of Maternity Allowance up to £5,000 worse off over 39 weeks of maternity leave, relative to women in similar circumstances in receipt of Statutory Maternity Pay; further notes that employed women can end up on Maternity Allowance, rather than Statutory Maternity Pay, for arbitrary reasons beyond their control, and that self-employed women can only apply for Maternity Allowance; notes that, in 2019, more than half of the some 60,000 women granted Maternity Allowance also applied for Universal Credit; believes that pregnant women and new parents, who are under extraordinary financial and other pressure as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and economic lockdown, should not be further disadvantaged by Government policies that fail to take proper account of their circumstances; and supports the Child Poverty Action Group, Maternity Action, the Women’s Budget Group, the Fawcett Society and the TUC in calling on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to remedy this anomalous injustice by amending the Universal Credit Regulations 2013.

Sponsored by:
Debbie Abrahams (Labour)