Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to increase the rate of statutory maternity pay in the context of recent trends in the cost of living.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has a statutory obligation to review Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), benefits including Maternity Allowance, and pensions annually. The review will commence shortly, and her decisions will be announced to Parliament in the normal way later this year. Any new rates of benefits / pensions will become payable from April 2023.

From April 2022 the standard rate of SMP increased to £156.66, in line with the September 2021 CPI rate of 3.1%.

The Government has no plans to increase the standard rate of SMP outside of the annual review.