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“YOUR WAIT TIME is 45 minutes. Please hold.” I stare at the baby in my arms and wonder if she’ll stay asleep or if I can manage to get her into the cot one armed, while holding my mobile. I don’t have the time to wait. I hang up. I’ll try again later.
Later, it’s the same story. Almost an hour wait time on a costly phone line, while holding baby and hoping my two-year-old will allow Mammy the time needed to stay on the phone. She doesn’t. She wants juice. And Peppa Pig is over.
I hang up, sigh and decide to send an email. It goes unanswered. I’m not really sure what to do next.
Delayed maternity payment
This was my experience of trying to contact the Department of Social Protection over my delayed maternity benefit payment in February of this year.
I’d taken my maternity leave in January and despite being a bit late putting the paperwork in (I sent it in four weeks in advance, instead of the required six. Those forms are monstrous, forgive me) I had no idea when or if I would be receiving the benefit.
Eventually, after finally getting through on the phone, I spoke to a man who told me that it seemed my application had been “forgotten about” but that he would push it through quickly. I was lucky. I was only delayed by a few weeks.
€235 a week
When I talk about maternity benefit to friends or family, most are surprised to hear that you effectively “go on the dole” during your leave. The statutory benefit is €235 per week.
Some companies do pay top ups to their staff and most State employees that I know receive their full wages during maternity leave, but many workers, generally in the private sector, do not.
The dichotomy between those who receive top up pay and those that receive minimum payment has a number of knock on effects.
Those on the minimum benefit will find it harder to take unpaid leave at the end of their maternity leave, because it will be financially impossible. This means mothers who receive lesser packages are forced to return to work earlier, quit breastfeeding in some cases, and put children into childcare earlier than they want to.
It’s recommended that babies should be exclusively breastfed until six months, before starting solid food. Not so easy, when your benefit runs out when the child is five months old and Mammy needs to go back to work.
Varadkar urged companies to be “generous”
Recently, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar encouraged companies to be “as generous as possible” with their maternity packages. Words are one thing. Actions are another.
Did you know that maternity benefit is taxed? That this was a measure slipped in by the last government which means that when a woman returns to work she pays back a portion of the benefit paid in the first place? Yep, great support for working mothers there Mr Varadkar.
Anyone with children will know what a short time they are babies. That first year passes in a blur, and it’s a demanding, magical and life changing period. It’s also a relatively short time in a woman’s working life and with smaller families and maternal age on the rise, allowing women to choose to stay at home by offering proper financial support during this time ensures that our children are given the best start in life, as well as easing the demand on childcare facilities.
We shouldn’t be penalised for giving birth
We should not be penalised for giving birth to our future workforce. We should be encouraged and helped and not forced to beg for benefits that are rightfully ours.
Childcare is one of the biggest issues facing this government. Pleading ministerial comments urging businesses to be nice to pregnant women is not the way forward. Neither is allowing a Department to fall so far behind in its administration that it cannot process a benefit for people who are at their most vulnerable, physically, mentally and financially.
Pay us properly and pay us on time. Please. For the sake of the children.
Nicola Cassidy is a marketing manager and creative writer. She writes a lifestyle and parenting blog at www.ladynicci.com.
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Sent in the paperwork late and then complains about late response.
@David Mc Nally:
Believe it or not you don’t have to know about pregnancy to be able to complete an administrative form and submit it on time
@David Mc Nally: I know sweet f all about pregnancy but I do know that if you are late sending paperwork then you can hardly expect a fast response. She is actually complaining about something that she did herself
@Donal Martin: Actually she is not. If you read all the article you would see she was told her application had been forgotten about. That certainly wasn’t her fault. Also working full time while pregnant and having a two year old also really doesn’t give you much time or space to do anything much but try to get through each day. That’s not something you would know anything about !!!!
@David Mc Nally:
I love the irony of you calling me a troll. Any chance you can elaborate how it is in the wrong context.
Maybe try putting your mobile on speaker phone and you wouldn’t need to hold it. Exaggerated editorial really takes away from the issue being raised
@Nick Allen: Speaker phone might wake the baby. Hold music ???
@Catherine Sims:
Maybe some background music will help the baby to sleep. It would not be good to train a baby to only be able to sleep with total silence. Need to check out your Good Parenting Guide
@Nick Allen: I’ve raised four kids thanks Nick including a severely disabled child now a teenager. I don’t need any advice on parenting from the likes of you. Babies can sleep through noise but will wake if there is sudden noise like music from a phone . Maybe more hands on parenting from yourself might make your opinions on the matter a little bit informed .
@Nick Allen: That’s you told.
@Catherine Sims:
I h
You are part of the problem!If everyone sends their forms in 2 weeks late,of course there is going to be delays.I have 4 kids and for each 1,I knew working in the private sector that I would only get the min amt mat benefit but I still chose to have 4 kids.I had all the information in front of me and I made the decision regarding mat, child minding,cost of kids etc but it was my choice.What do our ‘future’ workforce get besides the mat benefit?; childrens allowance,2 yrs free pre-school hrs, cheap primary and not too expensive college ed and if your child still doesnt get a job after it,they may even be entitled to unemployment benefit! Same as public service know their hrs and pay scale and still choose to go into that sector.People need to take responsibility for their choices/decisions!
@Joan Needham: what the hell are you on about ? Taking responsibility ? She is taking responsibility and all she wants is maternity benefit in a timely manner. Things happen and forms can go in two weeks late but that had nothing to do with her application being forgotten about. If you are looking for some sort of medal for yourself while thrashing this woman you aren’t going to get it here.
@Joan Needham: so what you are saying is only the wealthy should have children, or if the mother is the one working she should just pop out the child and go straight back to work. While we are at why don’t we get rid of pensions as well. I mean we all know we will get old on some stage right? So we should prepare for it accordingly. (FYI I’m being sarcastic). Children are our future. They will be the ones paying the taxes that pay hospitals, gardai, fire fighters, infrastructure etc when we no longer can. All she is asking is to have the benefit paid properly and not to be penalised for having a child.
@Catherine Sims: Hi Catherine, I actually replied to your comment below not knowing you had replied to mine! Nope, definitely not looking for a medal. I’m explaining I think the system is broken and that people like this lady have to take some responsibility. If we know the system isn’t great, send in your forms 2 weeks early, not 2 weeks late! And the excuse because it’s a long form doesn’t really cut it.
@Joan Needham: Joan the issue wasn’t her sending in her form late though was it ? Her form had been forgotten about. She was told this by the dept. That wasn’t her fault . She accepted she had sent in the form late in the article . She gave us full disclosure. Long forms are ridiculous though. Being pregnant and working full time with a two year old doesn’t give you much physical or mental energy either. Online applications should be possible at this stage for all payments . The system certainly is broken but blaming one woman who sent in a form late is not the answer.
@sue: No Sue, that’s not what I am saying. I am not wealthy and I can’t tell you for how long I have been struggling with money and unless I win the lotto I don’t see that ending any time soon. What I am saying is I chose to have my 4 beautiful kids, I don’t regret it, but I did go in to it with my eyes wide open. It was my choice. I also chose the private sector. I would have loved to having done nursing but after a bad accident at 17 I wasn’t able to. I am not saying I don’t appreciate the public sector, I am saying that was their choice. All sectors have pros and cons. The systems need to be fixed but sending in forms late is not helping.
@Joan Needham: this isn’t about public vs private sector. It’s about all moms. Yes she sent in the forms late but at this point in time even if you sent forms on time you are likely not going to get the benefit on time. And that’s wrong. Most go into parenthood with open eyes and try to plan ahead. But most plan the benefit in. Having the benefit delayed or forgotten about as was the case here is disgraceful.
@sue: Sue, the only reason I refer to the private sector v public sector is because the writer does in her article with regard to differences between pay for maternity. This lady says her payment was a few weeks late, well her application was a few weeks late. My point is if everyone sends their forms in late, it is going to cause a back log which has a knock on affect on all paperwork. We need to have some sort of online tracker for the payments and be able to correspond more electronically to speed up the process.
Nobody wonders why it takes 6 weeks to process, why does it take 4 weeks. what if the baby had been premature?
A woman works – she is pregnant, she is taking maternity leave.
Hardly the invention of the wheel.
6 weeks.
Sheesh.
4 weeks.
Whatever.
How about putting the baby in the cot 2 handed before making the call?
@Obi: says the person who has never had a baby.
@brian magee: what’s the back-story? There’s always a backstory in these woe-is-me tales. I’d love to hear the Depts side of the story but they’re not allowed to speak out to set the record straight
New born babies don’t need TV and sleep half the day so plan around them. Ask friends or family to help if you are so broke.
Submit the forms on time.
Unlike the government, companies can’t afford to pay women full pay when they are off. The government should not be doing so either, the benefits of working for the public sector should not be 10 times better than the rest of us paying for them. Public sector inequality is not just about wages. .
Same old entitlement article from someone who provably earns good money. Grow up.
@Bunny Johnson: it’s not a sense of entitlement, it actually is an entitlement buts it’s being administered badly.
@Bunny Johnson: Entitlement ? This woman is working and paying taxes and is most certainly ” entitled ” to get her matnernity benefit when she is off giving birth and looking after a newborn. Bills and mortgages don’t stop when you are on maternity leave and in fact outgoings increase with a newborn to provide for. Penalising women who give birth in this way is a joke !!!!! The sad thing is if a man came in here and wrote about the effects the delayed payment was having on his family there would be masses of sympathy from the usual mysognists on here .
@Catherine Sims: did you see what her job is? Of all the actual working women, she can work at home ffs. What a joke. She writes a blog and moans about maternity
Same thing happened to me and I had my application form sent in on time. Left nearly 1 hour waiting to talk to someone and my application was also ‘forgotten about’. Not something new mothers should have to chase up on.
@kathleen kilbane: Sadly all applications for all payments usually need to be chased up and many find like you did that they were forgotten about. What kind of a system allows that to happen ???
Love how loads of men have all the answers on how to put phones on speaker and babies in cots one armed. Gosh you are fantastic I’m sure many of you did great during your maternity leave looking after the babies and I’d say your wives came home to nice clean houses and dinner made every day. Lucky women!! Also so what she was 2 weeks late with the forms so shouldn’t that mean her application is delayed by two weeks not months and as her application seemed to be forgotten about it doesn’t really matter. I also think the author is stressing that for many women they rely on this payment as everyone isn’t paid maternity leave and that should change also. Ok back to the cleaning and making dinners and doing a bit of breastfeeding you guys before the wife gets home later!! ;)
@Brian: so she was 2 weeks delayed. .. shouldn’t her payment be delayed then by two weeks?? That is all I am saying. Seems her payment was delayed by MONTHS!!
@Brian: You are what is is wrong with this country!
@Laura Molloy: Wenger out
So along with it being taxed it’s now delayed as well… sure we all know women who just gave birth and newborns can live on fresh air, right?
Ffs. Soft target more like.
Been there. It’s horrendous.
The wait for payments from the dept of social protection is actually ridiculous. It’s often a 9 or 10 month wait for some payments. When you ring the individuals you speak to are nice and helpful so it’s has to be something with the whole process. If they are using the wait time as some sort of a deterrent it’s never going to work. People applying have no choices left usually when it comes to things like disability allliwance and Carers. An overhaul of the whole dept needs to happen so that those in need of their payments get them in a reasonable amount of time.
@Catherine Sims: I agree with you for these types of payments, and this is not usually a ‘choice’ someone makes i.e. Being a carer or having a disability that would need a disability allowance. And these are not things you can plan for and I do think these payments need to be pushed through faster. But for maternity benefit, you can plan to have a baby and have notice to send in your forms in a timely fashion!
@Joan Needham: chances are she wouldn’t have complained if her benefits were two weeks late as she sent the form in two weeks late. She was told it was forgotten about. Right now social protection is admitting to a long delay in processing forms themselves. Plenty of women that have submitted their forms on time won’t get benefit on time which is disgraceful.
Sorry we sent your payment by mistake along with 700,000other payments to Poland and every other country in the EU,
@Stouts O Shea: Ha Ha Ha, now let blame the polish? Of a form sent two week late of a maternity leave mother that got lost in somewhere in Ireland in a Irish office with Irish workers? Seriously? Sources please.
There is months delays happening here, Nicola was delayed by a couple of weeks sending her forms in, but they wouldn’t have been processed any quicker if she’d had them in a month earlier – they deal with the forms in order of when you are due to go on leave not when they receive it. They are also now dealing with paternity benefit applicants since last september. The forms you have to fill out changed quite a lot in the middle of last year also, and the delays got worse since then. The issue here seems to be a combination of manpower in the department and perhaps efficiency in dealing with the new forms.
New mums are a soft target in terms of throwing resources at the problem – it’s quite hard to find the energy and time to complain when you’re dealing with a newborn and whatever other family you have. (I’m also reliant on state maternity and my payment was delayed by a couple of weeks in early december)
Why is there such huge delays? Because the system is clogged with paperwork and firm filling.
@Michael O’Riordan: The system is also clogged with babies….I’m just back from maternity leave myself so I’m not bashing Mammies or babies as I’m a Mam….but have you seen the amount of babies being born? of course there will be delays, there’s no end to the baby boom happening.
It’s got nothing to do with that, this story sets of even the least sensitive BS meters, there’s more to this story than we’re being told here
Does anyone else see the irony that the author could not find the time to compete the form on time when she had one child and was working (I have two, about to become three, children and find the best time for completing stuff like this was on my lunch break in work!!) , but can now find the time to compose this article??!! Also, having exclusively breastfed my own two, you have the option of expressing so that the baby can continue to be breastfed when you return to work- by law your employer has to provide you with breaks to do this during your working day, and having done this myself, I can say that it is an option.
@enamonkey: So what? So you chose to pump and that’s great, no reason to bash otehr people for it. And believe it or not, people with babies are entitled to give an opinion peace and take ten minutes to write out their experiences. Why are so many who comment so flipping judgmental…. are you all sexually frustrated or something?
Yes it is an option to express, is it ideal? If the total amount of women in my job who are just back from maternity leave chose to express there wouldn’t be enough spaces or time for them to choose it. There’s also the issue of having to introduce a bottle and it’s not straight forward for everyone as I’m sure you know from talking to friends who try to breastfeed for a long time.
Do you really think the “Gugglemint” has any concern about babies? They are handy for a photo op at election time. They only become relevant at age 18 years ( not months) when they can vote!!
You pay tax on jobseekers benefit when you go back to work so the same treatment for maternity benefit seems fair
If your sending anything in to social, always send it in registered post, any correspondence i do i always send in registered.
Why is there such huge delays? Because the system is clogged with paperwork and form filling.
Read the authors other page about “going on the dole after an election”.
God its pathetic.
You know, the dad could have spent the time on the phone during the hold music and handed the phone over when a human came on if it was such a big issue.
My newborn would sleep through anything so putting the phone on speaker for us wouldn’t have been a problem if dad was never available.
She sent the form in late and had hassle and got sorted. It’s a first world problem. If the form was sent in on time and she had hassle it would have been a real, if still minor, issue.
She says the forms are monstrous so “forgive her”. Hmmm. This was baby number two so the form shouldn’t have been a suprise and I don’t remember the monstrous form taking more than an hour to fill out. I can’t remember any question that required us to spend two weeks researching to get the answer for.
I think people are missing the bigger point this is standard approach when dealing with any part of the public sector. This shouldn’t just be mother’s expecting more but society should grt more back for taxes being paid.
It’s the same shite with Paternity benefit. Sent in on time, it’s been around 8 weeks now and nothing
**complete, not compete!!**
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: And when they’re in the womb, of course.
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