There were almost 25,000 claims for shared parental leave last year, a record number since the right was introduced in 2015 when only 6,200 people made use of the right.
A Department for Business and Trade report on shared parental leave (SPL) at the end of 2023 estimated that between 2015 and 2020 just 1% of eligible mothers and 5% of eligible fathers or partners were taking it, with 13,000 people claiming it in 2021-22.
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However, according to figures from HMRC obtained from law firm Eversheds Sutherland as reported in The Times, some 24,700 claimed SPL in 2023-24.
SPL allows eligible women to curtail their right to maternity leave to enable their partner to take shared parental leave. Eligible parents can share 50 weeks’ leave and 39 weeks’ pay at the weekly statutory rate of £184.03 or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
Similar rules apply for adoptive parents. Partners can take leave concurrently or consecutively depending on their preferences and subject to certain eligibility and notice criteria. SPL is intended to encourage a sharing of parental responsibilities and to break the stereotypical assumptions that childcare is always the mother’s role.
The new government is expected to introduce legislation this year to enable eligible claimants to apply for SPL from the first day on the job, rather than only after 26 weeks of employment.
A genuine commitment to making work pay for working families is probably going to require something more revolutionary” – Suzanne Caveney, Eversheds Sutherland
Suzanne Caveney, an employment partner at Eversheds Sutherland, told The Times that take-up was still too low and that the UK could learn from countries such as Sweden and Finland where there was a right to paid “family leave” for both mothers and fathers.
“In those countries take-up is far higher and I am sure it is not a coincidence,” she said. “We can tinker around the edges of what we have currently got but I think the very low take-up is evidence of the fact that something is not working. A genuine commitment to making work pay for working families is probably going to require something more revolutionary.”
The government report last year found that parents who took up SPL and pay were more likely to be older, of white ethnicity, highly qualified, work in large organisations, earn a higher income, and have progressive gender role attitudes, compared with parents who do not take up SPL and pay.
Parents that took SPL were also more likely than mothers and fathers in general to be married. Take-up of SPL was largely concentrated in two sectors: public administration, health or education (43%) and business, professional or other services (31%). Parents who took SPL were also more likely than mothers and fathers generally to have been working in more senior occupations.
Larger workplaces of more than 250 staff were more likely (37%) to report any employees taking SPL than smaller employers of 5-50 staff (3%).
Caveney conceded that the gradual change in cultural acceptance of shared parenting responsibilities alongside more flexible policies at work “and the enhanced pay that goes with it” was helping to drive up use of the scheme.
She added that the new government’s changes were an improvement but predicted they would not lead to large numbers taking SPL without employers embracing it and encouraging it,” she said. “Generally speaking, we tend to find it is those white collar, professional services employers that are ahead of the game, because it costs money to do well.”
Although many employers enhanced the minimum pay offered under maternity leave, fewer did the same with shared parental leave. The government study found that on average parents on shared leave were paid their full salaries for 5.7 weeks – about a third of their time on leave.
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said the government “will provide workers with more protections, review parental leave to support working families and improve living standards, helping to boost economic growth and working conditions.”
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