Closed petition Reform Statutory Maternity Pay: shorten qualifying period and increase rate

Closed on 9 September 2023

We want the period a woman has to be employed for before being eligible to SMP to be reduced from 41 weeks to 15 weeks, and for the amount women receive to be increased to 90% of pay for a minimum of three months.

Currently you have to be working for a company for 41 weeks (in total) before you are eligible for SMP. This also prompts a lot of companies to make their contractual maternity pay available only to those eligible for SMP

Women are being penalised (prior to even being aware they are pregnant) and are being forced to live on significantly reduced wages.

SMP eligibility should fall in line with the current legal time in which you are required to inform you employer of pregnancy (the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth), and should also be paid at 90% of salary for a minimum of 3 months.

The Government covered wages for those furloughed during Covid because they couldn’t work, well a new mum also cannot work so why could one be covered & not the other?