A new mum has furiously hit out at Tory leader hopeful Kemi Badenoch's disastrous remarks on maternity pay.
This weekend the politician suggested the payment for new mums had "gone too far" and was "excessive". She later said she had been "misrepresented" and her comment had been on a wider point about cutting regulatory burdens on business, but it's not halted the anger that's followed.
Alice Gregory, who has a three month old baby, found the comments "upsetting". "For me personally it's a low amount of money," she said. "It's saying new mums - you're not worthy of being able to get that minimum wage. It's not in line with the cost of living. It's the most important time of your life - and it's not seen by the government."
READ MORE: Kemi Badenoch compares herself to Margaret Thatcher in maternity row defence
Alice, 30, was "shocked" when she found out the statutory maternity pay in the UK was just £184.03 a week after falling pregnant late last year. "I thought maternity pay was a percentage of my wage," she said. "I was really shocked at how much it was. It's £2k less than what I'm used to."
Legally companies have to pay 90 per cent of a salary for six weeks but Alice's work paid her at that rate for 12 weeks. She then receives the rate of £184.03 per week - £736.12 a month before tax. "It's not even minimum wage," she said.
Realising the money would not even cover her bills, the mum-to-be started saving straight away so she didn't have to be reliant on her partner, Dion McGrath's support carer salary.
In nine months, the head of marketing, from Anglesey, Wales, managed to save £7,000 from her salary and £8,500 from side hustles such as surveys and freelancing. "I have always been really independent," she said. "I stopped buying anything I didn't need - any clothes. It's a different lifestyle for what I feel I have worked for. I have to think any transaction through now. I'm only getting necessities."
Alice spent evenings and weekends freelancing and even after her daughter, now three months old, was born she continued to pick up clients to keep her emergency savings pot topped up. She also side hustles picking up cash through market research jobs and surveys where she can.
"Some people can't afford to save anything," she said. "I'm privileged I am able to save. Having gone from a carer to earning less than minimum wage just because you've had a baby is crazy. I'm lucky I have a partner who is really supportive - if you don't it must be an incredibly scary time."
Alice asked her followers on her TikTok account @alicesidehustler if they saved anything for their maternity - and some said they had saved as much as £20k. "People were saving like £15k - it's like a deposit on a house," she said. "It's supposed to be the best time of your life," she added. "But there is financial anxiety."
Alice hopes to be able to take the full year of maternity but may have to go back early if energy bills shoot up this winter. "I want to have as long as I can - ideally that full year," she said. "If I'm a little skint I don't really mind.
"It's the most important time in mine and my baby's life. It might have to be that I go back early. It would rob me of a whole three months."
