Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2022 to Question 125365 on Maternity Allowance, and with reference to the Benefit expenditure and caseload tables published by her Department, what assessment she has made of reasons for the absence of a decline in the Statutory Maternity Pay caseload over the period in which the number of grants of Maternity Allowance to employed women has fallen by 45 per cent.

Statutory Maternity Payment caseload is a different measure to the number of grants of Maternity Allowance.

Both the number of women on the caseload for Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance has decreased from 2016/17 to 2020/21. The reason for this has not been fully assessed.

However, the date shows a larger decrease in the Maternity Allowance caseload, than the Statutory Maternity Pay caseload. A likely contributor to the fall is the decrease in the UK’s total fertility rate