New mothers have been left feeling “ashamed and humiliated” after having to borrow thousands of pounds in order to finance their maternity leave.
Campaigners are warning that at just £187.18 a week, statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance are pushing mothers into poverty.
New mothers have reported going without meals and spiralling into debt because of low maternity pay, as a survey by Maternity Action found over half had resorted to credit cards, loans or borrowing from family to finance their leave.
One in four of the 1,176 pregnant women and new mothers surveyed said they had borrowed between £2,000 to £4,000, whilst 23 per cent said they had borrowed more than £4,000.
Laura, 39, found herself having to borrow £6,000 from her family to help pay her bills and for food after having her second child.
The charity director, who did not want to include her second name, told The Independent how she was forced to return to work early as she could no longer afford to provide for her children on her maternity pay.
“By about five months we were really starting to feel the pinch so I ended up going back to work full time after seven months,” she said.
“I don’t think I was really emotionally ready to do that. It was difficult for me and it was difficult for my baby.
“I was still breastfeeding so I was going into work with engorged breasts and I’m a manager so I didn’t want to be sneaking off and expressing milk halfway through a meeting. There was that pressure and anxiety and I was really tired as I wasn’t sleeping properly.”
She described having to shop more carefully and said almost every new mother she met had had to borrow money from elsewhere.
“There’s a certain amount of shame and humiliation. I’ve been working for 20 years and my job is not paid badly, but I’m now forced into a position where I actually am in poverty and that carries shame,” she said.
“There’s just this embarrassment of having to essentially admit you’re not succeeding at something. It feels like you’re failing to be able to provide.
“When you’re a mum it’s already a very emotionally difficult time, so psychologically it damages people’s confidence which means you’re wellbeing is compromised which can damage your baby.”
The allowance is worth just 44 per cent of the standard weekly National Living Wage and less than a third of women’s full time average earnings.
Maternity Action say this means that an average earning new mother could lose more than £17,000 over nine month’s leave.
In fact, the report found that 57 per cent had cut their maternity leave short, or are planning to, because they can’t afford it.
“Our system of maternity leave is vastly outdated, with an expectation that a mother will be supported by another higher breadwinner, and dangerously out of touch with today’s reality that women are often the main or higher earner in the household,” Ali Fiddy, director at Maternity Action, said.
“Our critically low level of maternity pay is pushing pregnant women and new mothers into debt and poverty with implications for the Government’s pledges for closing the gender pay gap, making work pay for women, tackling child poverty and improving maternal and infant health.”
Half of those surveyed also said they had to buy less healthy food due to high costs, as 38 per cent said they ate smaller meals or skipped meals entirely for cost reasons.
A quarter went without food themselves to priorities feeding their children and the majority said they had to reduce the number of hours they put the heating on.
Ms Fiddy added: “If it wants to deliver its pledges on these issues, the government must consider the provision of more adequate maternity pay as part of its forthcoming review of Shared Parental Leave.
“Long-term, the chancellor should implement a programme of phased investment that delivers parity between maternity payments and the standard weekly National Living Wage.
“In the shorter-term the government should aim to at least restore payments to their 2012 pre-austerity level of around two-thirds of the National Living Wage, which financial modelling has shown is achievable.”
