THE government has been urged to double maternity pay instead of penalising women for having children. 

Unison and Maternity Action have warned that women are being forced to cut short their maternity leave and skip meals because the current statuary amount is too low to survive on. 

They have said that the statutory weekly amount should be upped to £364.70 so that mothers receive the equivalent of the national minimum wage of £10.42 an hour.