New parents should get £5,000, says report

The report claims the UK's current maternity pay system is one of the most old-fashioned in the entire developed world. It highlights the way in which maternity pay for mothers is largely based on a percentage of their pay, meaning that high-earning mothers get more state funding than those working in low-skilled and casual employment.

Elizabeth Truss, deputy director of Reform, said: "There is something wrong with a system when mothers on high incomes and gold-plated maternity leave also get most money from the taxpayer."

The report goes on to suggest that fathers are "treated as an irrelevance" in regards to paternity pay and leave, only being granted two weeks, which is often not taken.

Reform is also recommending that six months of unpaid leave is provided for both mother and father, to be taken at the same time or one after the other during the first year of a child's life.