Maternity Pay: Coronavirus

(asked on 2nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that pregnant women who have lost their jobs during the covid-19 pandemic are not disqualified from receiving statutory maternity pay.


Answered by
Mims Davies Portrait
Mims Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 10th June 2020

The Government is committed to supporting all workers at this time, including working parents.

Where a woman satisfies the Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) Employment Test of 26 weeks of continuous employment into the 15th week before expected birth, her employer must pay it to her even if she subsequently leaves their employment or is made redundant. This test reflects the relationship between employer and employee and is designed to ensure that a woman has made a reasonable contribution towards her employer's business before that employer is required to fund and administer maternity payments.

Maternity Allowance (MA) is intended to support those who do not qualify for SMP. To qualify for MA a woman must have been employed and/or self-employed in at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the week she expects her baby (the test period) and earn on average at least £30 a week. Part-weeks of employment or self-employment count as full weeks. That work does not have to be for the same employer, nor continuous, nor undertaken on the same basis (i.e. a claim can be made where there is a mixture of employment and self-employment or where the claimant has recently become unemployed).

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