Dilettante: For the self-employed, parenting feels impossible

I had an epiphany around 18 months ago. I’d recently turned 31 and it hit me like a ton of bricks: I wanted to have a kid. I was single at the time and remain single now, and there was nothing urgent about it. Still, it’d felt significant. I’d been dithering for years, but somehow everything had become clear. At some point, once I have found a partner, I would like to be a parent.

Had my life been a movie, this would have been the point at which I would have started daydreaming about potential names, what my baby would look like, and how early is too early to teach a child to swear in French. Instead, what I did was start saving money.

I have been self-employed for the past seven years, meaning that, if or hopefully when I get pregnant, I will not have access to the sort of maternity leave my friends in full-time jobs can benefit from. As I learnt, with some horror, self-employed “maternity allowance” means receiving a maximum of £184.03 per week, for 39 weeks.

In comparison, statutory leave for employees involves six weeks of pay equivalent to 90% of their salaries, followed by a longer period at the set minimum. Three-quarters of workplaces also offer their own schemes, which are often considerably more generous than the legal requirements.

Though I would happily make some sacrifices in order to bring a new life into the world, attempting to live on £800 a month in London really would be a step too far. It is always possible that I will end up meeting someone who, on top of being clever, kind, funny and handsome, also has access to an especially plump bank account, but I’d rather not count on it.

What I am doing instead, then, is attempting to put as much money aside as possible, so I can take three to six months entirely off work while I try and figure out how this whole parenthood thing actually works. At risk of stating the obvious, I am aware that I am incredibly fortunate.

I realised I wanted to have a child long before the fact, instead of unexpectedly getting pregnant and decided to keep the child. Crucially, I also have the sort of job which means that I can afford to save several thousands of pounds every year. Still, it really is quite a ridiculous state of affairs.

There are people my age in a similar position to mine and who, because of their salaried jobs, are now getting to save for a decent pension, a deposit for a flat, or both. I can currently put money towards neither of those things; I am financially comfortable but I’m no millionaire. There is all this money I’m earning and not putting towards my future, or spending now to make my life nicer.

I am also far from the only person in this situation. There are currently just under 5 million self-employed workers in Britain, and a number of them are likely to be young professionals. Do we not deserve more help? Could something not be sorted out, through national insurance contributions or otherwise?

After all, we keep getting told that people in their twenties and thirties aren’t having enough children. Though there is no single reason behind low fertility rates, it seems fair to assume that at least some would-be parents are keeping their legs crossed because they just couldn’t afford to raise a child, let alone several.

What a disappointment, then, to find that the government failed to look at the Maternity Allowance before publishing their Employment Rights Bill. Though it is true that there are plenty of other areas which need fixing, this is an issue which has cropped up before.

Back in 2018, Labour MP Tracy Brabin tried to introduce the Shared Parental Leave and Pay Extension Bill to Parliament, which would have given more rights to self-employed parents. It was defeated at second reading. Parental Pay Equality, a campaign launched by Olga FitzRoy to create more inclusive parental leave policies, stopped updating its website in 2023.

This, then, is an attempt to bring the issue back into the headlines – quite literally. Do you want people to have more kids? Hell, do you want them to spend more of their hard-earned cash on making the economy go round? Then for the love of god, please give us self-employed scoundrels some real parental leave.