Rejected petition Make statutory maternity pay reflect percentage of earnings

I would like the government to reconsider statutory maternity pay, amending it to reflect the average earnings of a person and their tax and national insurance contributions. Those on higher wages contribute more national insurance, the statutory payments they receive should be reflective of this.

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For the first six weeks of maternity leave you are entitled to 90% of your average weekly earnings however after this point you are entiled to 90% of your earnings or £151.97 per week (due to rise in April 2022 to £156.66) WHICHEVER IS LOWER. It is unrealistic to expect someone who is earning £30,000 annually (around £500 a week) and has a family to feed, mortgage to pay and a house to heat, to then drop down to around £8000 annually (£156 a week).

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.

Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.

We understand that you want to see changes to Statutory Maternity Pay, but it's not clear how you want current entitlements to be changed.

You could start a new petition explaining clearly what you would like Statutory Maternity Pay entitlements you would like people to have.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 27 January 2022
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