Maternity Allowance, Childcare
Parents and carers are underrepresented in the music industry: 29% of people in the music industry have caring responsibilities, compared with 44% of the UK population. Soprano Lucy Cox described to us a “feeling that you have ended your job by having a child”:
Dr Beaumont told us that:
Nine out of 10 classical music musicians are turning down work because of parent and carer responsibilities, self-employed mothers and female carers in classical music experience an £8,000 pay penalty, only 4% of people working in classical music referenced a supportive employer, and 40% of parents working in classical music are thinking about leaving their careers.
Naomi Pohl spoke of how the burden of childcare falls much more heavily on women, posing a career barrier for them in a greater way than it does for men: 29% described family commitments as a barrier, whereas only 18% of men said the same. The MU support childcare being made tax-deductible for the self-employed “so that women can actually see that recognised as a cost of doing their jobs”. We have received similar representations in our separate inquiry into support for female entrepreneurs and will consider this proposition in more detail in that inquiry.
When self-employed people have families, only the mother qualifies for paid leave (Maternity Allowance (MA), claimed through DWP). Also, strict rules govern the amount of work the mother can do while claiming MA. The ISM wrote to us to explain the situation:
Our legal team are regularly contacted by pregnant freelance musicians who are struggling to get to grips with the Maternity Allowance system, which has not been reformed for many years and which has failed to keep pace with changes in the way women work.
This effectively places the entire burden of childcare in the first year on the mother, removing her from the workplace.
Quelle: Misogyny in music: on repeat, Fifth Report of Session 2024–25, UK Parliament
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmwomeq/573/report.html#heading-4