Closed petition Treat Maternity Allowance in the same way as SMP when claiming other benefits

Closed on 23 January 2021

Change the rules for Universal credit and other benefits claims where Maternity Allowance (MA) is considered, so that it is counted in the same way as Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), meaning that receiver of either of these benefits can also receive Universal Credit support too.

At the moment if woman changes jobs and then finds out she is pregnant she will not be eligible to SMP, meaning she will have to claim MA. MA is considered as unearned income and therefore is deducted from Universal Credit claim, meaning that the receiver of MA would not receive any Universal credit for herself. This puts women who receive MA instead of SMP at a financial disadvantage of around £400 per month. This has a huge impact on quality of life, mental health and lifestyle of the family.