{"id":20147,"date":"2024-12-02T07:07:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T07:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=20147"},"modified":"2024-12-02T07:07:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T07:07:55","slug":"10-years-on-is-shared-parental-leave-failing-working-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=20147","title":{"rendered":"10 years on, is shared parental leave failing working families?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Josh Wiborg says the two weeks he had off work after his twin girls were born “isn’t enough time”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A decade on from the introduction of a landmark scheme aimed at helping new parents share childcare, campaigners say shared parental leave is failing the working families it was designed to help.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As the sole earner in his young family, 21-year-old Josh Wiborg couldn’t take shared parental leave when his twin girls were born. <\/p>\n

Like so many dads, he was entitled to only two weeks off work, at reduced pay.<\/p>\n

He says it left him “feeling like a stranger” to his twin girls, Autumn and Winter, in the first few weeks of fatherhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awful,” he says. \u201cMy partner was struggling and I was struggling as well. It just wasn\u2019t enough time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Introduced 10 years ago by the previous Conservative government, shared parental leave is a state-funded scheme that allows parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay after the birth or adoption of a child.<\/p>\n

It was hoped this would allow dads to play a more prominent role in fatherhood.<\/p>\n

But new analysis, seen exclusively by BBC News, shows it might not benefit all dads equally. <\/p>\n

The uptake is heavily skewed towards higher earners, predominantly based in London and south-east England.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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More than 5,000 high earners used shared parental leave last year<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The figures, from a Freedom of Information request submitted by campaign group The Dad Shift, show the top 20% of earners make up 60% of those to use shared parental leave.<\/p>\n

Just 5% of those who took up shared parental leave came from the bottom 50% of earners.<\/p>\n

And since its introduction in 2014, the government has paid \u00a340m in shared parental leave payments to families in London – almost 10 times more than in the north-east of England.<\/p>\n

“In terms of working families, it has completely failed,” says George Gabriel, co-founder of the campaign group.<\/p>\n

“There’s a big awareness gap, there’s a complexity problem and there’s a challenge about most men feeling uncomfortable taking leave off the mother of their child.”<\/p>\n

Fewer than 5% of all eligible fathers use shared parental leave.<\/p>\n

Those who have used the scheme are positive about its benefits, though.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Pete says he had some “really magical times” with his son, Jay, on shared parental leave<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Pete Target, from London, took nine weeks off work to look after his son, Jay, when the little boy was nine months old.<\/p>\n

“It was everything I\u2019d hoped for,” says Pete, 36.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re closer than we could have possibly otherwise been.”<\/p>\n

But he admits it was a “difficult financial decision”.<\/p>\n

Because his section of shared parental leave fell outside the 37-week window for government support, he wasn’t paid for the time he took off with his son.<\/p>\n

He says “something has to improve” to ensure more dads can benefit.<\/p>\n

“I feel so lucky that we could afford the financial hit, [but] it needs to be practically possible for most men to do it.<\/p>\n

“We need men to feel like they can take it.”<\/p>\n

A government review from 2023<\/a> suggests almost half (45%) of all dads weren’t even aware of the option.<\/p>\n

As his wife wasn’t working, Josh wasn\u2019t entitled to shared parental leave and instead took statutory paternity leave<\/a>, the government-funded scheme that allows dads or secondary care providers to take two weeks off after their baby is born.<\/p>\n

Those eligible receive \u00a3184.03 a week or 90% of their average earnings, whichever is lower.<\/p>\n

It meant Josh’s earnings dipped immediately after his twin girls were born.<\/p>\n

“I had to go back to work [after two weeks] and leave my partner on her own,” he says.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t know how we got through it.”<\/p>\n

The government has committed to reviewing parental leave<\/a> during its first year in office.<\/p>\n

It says it wants statutory paternity leave to be a day-one right for all employees. Currently, it applies to dads who have been employed for 26 weeks or more.<\/p>\n

But even with these proposed changes, campaigners say the UK’s parental leave system is one of the worst in Europe.<\/p>\n

Blair McDougall, a father of two, is one of a number of Labour MPs backing The Dad Shift’s campaign for more generous parental leave.<\/p>\n

While he says the government is right to “keep one eye on the economic reality”, he is in discussions with a group of fellow backbench Labour MPs to discuss whether future changes can go even further than those already outlined.<\/p>\n

“Society has moved on but the rules around paternity haven’t,” he says.<\/p>\n

“We need to bring those up to date to help fathers be the type of dads that most of us want to be.”<\/p>\n

Some businesses pay out of their own pocket to offer enhanced paternity leave and shared parental-leave packages.<\/p>\n

This can include more time off and pay that is boosted to full earnings or a higher rate than the statutory offer.<\/p>\n

But The Dad Shift says taxpayers should be funding “more substantial” parental-leave packages, to take the burden off businesses and ensure every parent can benefit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Paul Bowen says most small businesses can’t afford to give employees enhanced parental leave<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Paul Bowen, who employs roughly 30 people at his pie factory and shop in Chorley, Lancashire, says the rise in National Insurance contributions<\/a> is the latest in a long line of budgetary squeezes for small businesses like his.<\/p>\n

“I’d love to give our employees extra time off, but we simply can’t afford it,” he says.<\/p>\n

“If we can have help from the government, that’s where it needs to come from.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘I understand the struggles of other dads’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Josh is now heavily involved in bringing up his twin girls but he still remembers how “tricky” those first few weeks were.<\/p>\n

“The situation needs to be changed completely,” he says.<\/p>\n

When he was struggling in the early days of fatherhood, he approached North East Young Dads and Lads (NEYDL) for help.<\/p>\n

He now works for the charity as a “peer enabler”, offering the same advice and support from which he benefited.<\/p>\n

“I understand the struggles of other dads,” he says.<\/p>\n

“I know it’s stressful, so if I can just help one person it is so worth it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Additional reporting from George Walker.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/em> www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC Josh Wiborg says the two weeks he had off work after his twin girls were born “isn’t enough time” A decade on from the introduction of a landmark scheme aimed at helping new parents share childcare, campaigners say shared parental leave is failing the working families it was designed to help. As the sole […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}