THE UK’s paternal leave system is “one of the worst in the developed world”, a parliamentary report has warned.
The Women and Equalities Committee (WEC), a cross-party group in the House of Commons, says that the system “entrenches outdated gender stereotypes” and requires “substantial change”.
Introduced in 2003, statutory paternal leave allows new fathers to take up to two weeks of paid leave, with those eligible receiving £187.18 a week or 90% of their average earnings, whichever is lower.
The report states that it is “completely out of kilter with the cost of living”, as this comes to below half of the National Living Wage and real Living Wage, in addition to being below rates in other European countries.
The committee has called the two weeks’ leave “completely out of step with how most couples want to share their parenting responsibilities”.
In comparison, Sweden entitles parents to 480 days of parental leave, which can be split into 240 days each if it’s a parental team of two. Ninety days are reserved exclusively for fathers.
Fathers in the UK do not have day-one right to paternity leave, unlike mothers.
Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, called current paternity entitlement in the UK “woefully insufficient and outdated”.
“I would urge the UK government to overhaul statutory leave to 4-6 weeks and increase the statutory pay of £187.18/week or 90%, which should be more comparative with the increase in the cost of living and energy costs.” she said.
“Paternity Pay has to reflect modern family challenges yet it seems out of touch. Increasing paternity pay would be one way to incentivise couples to have bigger families as fertility rates have declined in recent years.”
The SNP MSP, who also serves as convener of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee in Holyrood, noted that the Scottish government provides a baby box for parents with new babies.
The report suggests several recommendations, including calling on parliament to pave the way towards increasing paid statutory paternity leave to six weeks, which it calls a “medium-term objective”.
It recommends a phased introduction of increases to statutory pay across the system to bring rates for all working parents up to 80% or more of average earnings or the real Living Wage.
The WEC’s report also looks at reforming shared parental leave, which allows up to 50 weeks of a mother’s statutory leave and 37 weeks of her pay entitlement to be transferred to the father/co-parent within the first year.
While beneficial to those who can access it, it is not universal, with the report urging that the scheme be made accessible to self-employed fathers. It also calls the shared parental leave system “extremely difficult for most parents and their employees to understand.”
Campaigners from The Dad Shift, who call for improved paternity leave in the UK, are set to picket outside Holyrood and in London on Wednesday afternoon.
