Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the Exchequer was of statutory maternity pay in the last year for which figures are available.

The amount of Statutory Maternity Pay in the last year for which figures are available was £2,303 million for 2012/13 (nominal terms). Figures are subject to change due to more information becoming available through employers' returns to HM Revenue and Customs.

The figure is for Great Britain only. Northern Ireland figures are the responsibility of the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland.

Source:

Original source is expenditure data from employer returns to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and is the amount recovered by employers rather than the amount received by claimants. This information is shown in DWP's expenditure tables found on the Gov.uk website at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/benefit-expenditure-tables