The struggle to make ends meet could trigger depression and relationship breakdowns.

Citing the need to make more than £60 billion of additional savings, including £17 billion this year, the chancellor George Osborne said in a recent speech, “Welfare cannot be protected from further substantial cuts.

“Government is going to have to be permanently smaller – and so too is the welfare system.”

And he said that the Conservative party will make £12 billion more in welfare cuts after the 2015 election.

Key to the plan is the Conservative’s proposal for the first ever cap on total government spending on benefits.

Pension costs are excluded from the cap, but maternity and paternity pay is not.

And to keep costs within the boundaries of the cap, Osborne also announced plans to increase certain benefits by a set amount each year, currently one per cent.

This is instead of raising payment as needed in order to keep pace with the rate of inflation.

Experts say that decoupling benefits from the rate of inflation is in fact a decrease in real terms.

Expressing her concern over the proposed plans, Belinda Phipps, the National Childbirth Trust’s (NCT) chief executive, has written to both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, appealing to them in their roles as fathers.

In her letter, she wrote ‘Being a parent, you will understand the value of the first thousand days of parenthood – throughout pregnancy and until a child turns two.

‘Leading child health experts worldwide agree that care given during this life stage has more influence on a child’s future than any other time.

‘The struggle to make ends meet may force parents back to work earlier than they planned.’

The government’s recommendations come before additional flexibility in maternity and paternity leave takes effect early next year.

Changes made in 2011 mean that new parents are now able to share 52 weeks of leave between them, rather than having the bulk of that time reserved for the mother only.

The additional changes scheduled to begin in April 2015 will make parental leave much more flexible, with parents able to take time off more than once, spreading the leave between parents as needed or wanted.

Currently, any leave must be taken in a single block of time.

For the first six weeks of maternity leave, new mothers receive 90 per cent of their salary. They then receive £136.78, or 90 per cent of their salary depending on which figure is lower, for the next 33 weeks.

Fathers may be paid £136.78 for one to two weeks of leave, and additional leave may not be paid.

While commending the new and forthcoming flexibility in parental leave, Phipps added that, ‘If the government’s recent announcement on shared paternity leave is to be meaningful in any way, it is critical that we see increases in the rate at which it is paid.’

She pointed out that financial anxiety at a time of extreme stress as new parents adjust to life with a newborn could contribute to higher incidences of postnatal depression and relationship break-downs.

Phipps concluded her letter by saying that the NCT asks the government to reconsider its decision ‘to put maternity and paternity pay inside the benefits cap, and increase it at a level which matches the cost of living.’