Pete Target, from London, took nine weeks off work to look after his son, Jay, when the little boy was nine months old.
“It was everything I’d hoped for,” says Pete, 36.
“We’re closer than we could have possibly otherwise been.”
But he admits it was a “difficult financial decision”.
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.
He says “something has to improve” to ensure more dads can benefit.
“I feel so lucky that we could afford the financial hit, [but] it needs to be practically possible for most men to do it.
“We need men to feel like they can take it.”
A government review from 2023, external suggests almost half (45%) of all dads weren’t even aware of the option.
As his wife wasn’t working, Josh wasn’t entitled to shared parental leave and instead took statutory paternity leave, the government-funded scheme that allows dads or secondary care providers to take two weeks off after their baby is born.
Those eligible receive £184.03 a week or 90% of their average earnings, whichever is lower.
It meant Josh’s earnings dipped immediately after his twin girls were born.
“I had to go back to work [after two weeks] and leave my partner on her own,” he says.
“I don’t know how we got through it.”
The government has committed to reviewing parental leave during its first year in office.
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.
But even with these proposed changes, campaigners say the UK’s parental leave system is one of the worst in Europe.
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.
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.
“Society has moved on but the rules around paternity haven’t,” he says.
“We need to bring those up to date to help fathers be the type of dads that most of us want to be.”
Some businesses pay out of their own pocket to offer enhanced paternity leave and shared parental-leave packages.
This can include more time off and pay that is boosted to full earnings or a higher rate than the statutory offer.
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.
Credit: Source link
