Shared parental leave ‘failing working families’

The UK has the least generous paternity leave entitlement in Europe. Currently, the statutory entitlement to paternity leave is two weeks and the weekly rate for paternity pay is £172 a week, which is 44% of the national living wage. Shockingly, new survey data reveals that for 1 in 5 (20%) dads, no parental leave options were available to them fol... See more

In response to the notion that Dads and partners are able to access the Shared Parental Leave scheme should they wish to spend longer with their new children Joeli adds, “Shared Parental Leave has failed on almost every measure set by the Government. In addition, the scheme is fundamentally flawed. It is not shared parental leave at all, it is shar... See more

I would have loved to take more than two weeks off with my kids, but the reality is we just couldn’t afford it. As the main breadwinner, cutting my income down to statutory pay after two weeks would have meant struggling to pay the mortgage. Shared Parental Leave only works if both parents’ employers offer generous pay, which isn’t the case for mos... See more

The study findings are timely given the new Labour Government’s Manifesto commitment to reviewing the parental leave system within its first year in office. The previous Government’s own evaluation of SPL published last year, found that only 1% of eligible mothers and 5% of eligible fathers took it.