Lib Dems offer more money to first-time mothers
Working women would receive a cash boost when they have their first child under new plans announced by the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy.
The party is proposing that all working mothers should be guaranteed at least £4,420 for 26 weeks of statutory maternity leave.
This equates to £170 a week, the equivalent of the gross income for a 35-hour working week paid at the national minimum wage rate.
The party believes this would help the 200,000 working women a year who have their first child, and claim that no one would lose out under the plans.
Currently, women receive 90 per cent of their salary for six weeks and £102 for another 20 weeks.
The Lib Dems accept that for higher paid women the new system would not offer more money and say that those women would be free to stick to the current system. But, they argue that women earning less than £22,000 would receive more money under this system.
Mr Kennedy, said: “Our Maternity Income Guarantee forms a solid base for working women to plan their first baby’s first months. It will help to prevent this most exciting of times for new parents being marred by the financial worry that can so often accompany it.
“For single mothers, for low income families, for all working women who want the best for their new family, the choice of our Maternity Income Guarantee will reward them with a working wage for the first six months of their first child’s life.”
Annette Brooke, who speaks for the Lib Dems on children, said there were “very substantial costs involved in having your first child”. This income guarantee would provide “real financial security” for six months and give mothers the choice “to spend more time in their child’s early months, without feeling financially pressurised to return to work.”
The party estimates that the scheme would cost £144 million a year and would be paid for by shifting current government spending from low to high priority areas. It would only be available for women having their first child, as the party believes costs are less extensive the second time around – with clothes and equipment being passed down. It also notes that by then parents will be receiving child benefit and other tax credits
