[UK] Top 20% of earners benefit most from shared parental leave

In the UK, top earners are most benefitting from shared parental leave with campaigners damning the policy as "elitist" and "broken" and the Prime Minister under pressure to overhaul the scheme, Independent reports.

Campaign group The Dad Shift obtained new data under freedom of information (FOI) laws and learned that 60 per cent of those claiming shared parental leave are in the nation’s top 20 per cent of earners. The bottom half of earners made just five per cent of the claims.

Another of The Dad Shift’s FOI requests to HMRC reportedly revealed that just 10,600 new fathers took shared parental leave in the tax year 2023-24, while 623,100 women took up paid maternity leave over the same period.

The group said this figure suggests that less than two per cent of new fathers were taking up the scheme, under which parents can divide up to 37 weeks of paid leave and up to 50 weeks of leave between them. For fathers this equates to £184.3 per week.

Alex Lloyd Hunter - co-founder of The Dad Shift - told Independent, “this is a failed policy; British families and British fathers deserve better”, and warned “our current system is not just broken but elitist too”.

“Whether they’re well off or not, British dads want and deserve a meaningful chunk of properly paid time off so they can bond with their babies, be there for their partners, and get started on being decent fathers.”

The government has reportedly promised to review parental leave in its first year in power, calling for employees to be entitled to statutory paternity leave from their first day in the job. Under current rules, fathers can only claim the leave when they have been employed for 26 weeks or more.

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said they are “making paternity leave and unpaid parental leave day one rights as part of our Employment Rights Bill, which will play a key role in delivering our plan to make work pay.”

The representative continued, “We will also carry out a review of wider statutory parental leave to ensure it offers the best possible support to working families around the country and boost economic growth.”

Source: Independent

(Quotes via original reporting)

In the UK, top earners are most benefitting from shared parental leave with campaigners damning the policy as "elitist" and "broken" and the Prime Minister under pressure to overhaul the scheme, Independent reports.

Campaign group The Dad Shift obtained new data under freedom of information (FOI) laws and learned that 60 per cent of those claiming shared parental leave are in the nation’s top 20 per cent of earners. The bottom half of earners made just five per cent of the claims.

Another of The Dad Shift’s FOI requests to HMRC reportedly revealed that just 10,600 new fathers took shared parental leave in the tax year 2023-24, while 623,100 women took up paid maternity leave over the same period.

The group said this figure suggests that less than two per cent of new fathers were taking up the scheme, under which parents can divide up to 37 weeks of paid leave and up to 50 weeks of leave between them. For fathers this equates to £184.3 per week.

Alex Lloyd Hunter - co-founder of The Dad Shift - told Independent, “this is a failed policy; British families and British fathers deserve better”, and warned “our current system is not just broken but elitist too”.

“Whether they’re well off or not, British dads want and deserve a meaningful chunk of properly paid time off so they can bond with their babies, be there for their partners, and get started on being decent fathers.”

The government has reportedly promised to review parental leave in its first year in power, calling for employees to be entitled to statutory paternity leave from their first day in the job. Under current rules, fathers can only claim the leave when they have been employed for 26 weeks or more.

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said they are “making paternity leave and unpaid parental leave day one rights as part of our Employment Rights Bill, which will play a key role in delivering our plan to make work pay.”

The representative continued, “We will also carry out a review of wider statutory parental leave to ensure it offers the best possible support to working families around the country and boost economic growth.”

Source: Independent

(Quotes via original reporting)