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Treat Maternity Allowance in the same way as SMP when claiming other benefits

Submitted by Lucy Sun on Tuesday 30th June 2020

Published on Thursday 23rd July 2020

Current status: Closed

Closed: Saturday 23rd January 2021

Signatures: 34

Relevant Departments

Tagged with

IMPACT ~ month ~ pregnant ~ Universal Credit

Petition Action

Treat Maternity Allowance in the same way as SMP when claiming other benefits

Petition Details

Change the rules for Universal credit and other benefits claims where Maternity Allowance (MA) is considered, so that it is counted in the same way as Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), meaning that receiver of either of these benefits can also receive Universal Credit support too.

Additional Information

At the moment if woman changes jobs and then finds out she is pregnant she will not be eligible to SMP, meaning she will have to claim MA. MA is considered as unearned income and therefore is deducted from Universal Credit claim, meaning that the receiver of MA would not receive any Universal credit for herself. This puts women who receive MA instead of SMP at a financial disadvantage of around £400 per month. This has a huge impact on quality of life, mental health and lifestyle of the family.


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