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The women missing out on Covid-19 financial support because they had a baby
Self-employed women are receiving less government support during coronavirus if they’ve taken maternity leave between April 2016 and March 2019 – because maternity pay isn’t taken into account when calculating payments under the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. The group Pregnant Then Screwed is now threatening the chancellor with indirect sex discrimination. It’s estimated between 75,000 and 80,000 women are affected.On Woman's Hour, Jenni Murray speaks to founder of Pregnant then Screwed, Joeli Brearley and the freelance journalist, Alex Lloyd who says the support she’s getting is about half what it could have been if average earnings had included maternity pay.