Unaffordable paternity rights

Research by the charity, Pregnant Then Screwed, has found that the reason why over two-thirds of fathers (70.6 per cent) only used part of their paternity leave was because they could not afford to stay off work any longer.

It also found that just three in five fathers (63.7 per cent) took two weeks or less paternity leave following the birth of their most recent child.

In addition, less than a third of fathers (29 per cent) reported being able to access enhanced paternity pay as part of an employer benefit scheme around the birth of their most recent child. This figure dropped to one in five fathers in households with an income of less than £60,000. 

Accessing enhanced leave and being able to take it are two very different things as the research found. Even among fathers who had access to enhanced pay, less than half (48.3 per cent) were able to afford to take two weeks or less leave.

Of those fathers who took two weeks or less paternity leave, under a third (32.3 per cent) said they were ready at a physical level to return to work, just 14 per cent said they were ready to return at a mental level, while a mere 12.8 per cent said they were ready to return emotionally.

Currently, the UK has the least generous paternity leave entitlement in Europe, with a statutory right to two weeks. The weekly rate for paternity pay is £172.48 or 90 per cent of the salary (whichever is lower).

Although new regulations came into force on 8 March 2024 (so that fathers of children born or adopted on or after 6 April to give their employers the requisite 28 days’ notice), the charity points out that the only change involves allowing paternity leave to be taken in two one-week blocks instead of a single two-week block.

Pregnant Then Screwed is critical of the fact that the changes in the Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations do not address the overall low rate of statutory paternity pay; nor do they increase the overall length of time that dads and partners can spend with their new arrival. It is therefore campaigning for that figure to be increased to six weeks’ pay at 90 per cent of salary.

Overall, the charity surveyed 35,800 parents for this research looking at paternity leave uptake in the UK and the barriers facing fathers and partners in accessing the leave. Women in Data then extracted a nationally representative sample of 5,870 parents to create a 2024 State of the Nation report.

To read the report in more detail, click here. 

To read the new paternity leave regulations in full, click here.