Closed petition Discrimination against Self Employed Adopters

Closed on 30 March 2015

This e-petition highlights the discrimination faced by Self Employed people wishing to adopt children.
As an `employee' it has been recognised that there is an entitlement to Statutory Adoption Pay, as there is for Statutory Maternity Pay. For Self Employed parents giving Birth they are entitled to Maternity Allowance. However a Self Employed person adopting is not entitled to anything. The government is currently encouraging people to adopt, however this discrimination will certainly stop people from doing just that. The financial burden of having a child is recognised for employed adopters and both self employed and employed birth parents, why is it not for self employed adopters?

We petition the Government to introduce an Adoption Allowance comparable with Maternity Allowance for Self Employed people. The amount of people adopting at present is only 15,000 a year, thus this would not be a huge burden to the government but a great benefit to the social system.