Most working parents unaware of ‘biggest change in decades’ to paternity laws

The majority of working parents are not aware of the new changes to paternity leave rules – the biggest expansion to eligibility rules in decades.

In addition, most do not think they go far enough and the majority of fathers believe that stigma still stops most fathers from taking shared paternity leave.

The new figures – released by parental career support experts MATRI Coaching – show that just 29% of working parents say they are aware of the rule changes, and understand what the changes will be.

An additional 38% say while they understand there will be changes, they are not aware of what the actual changes are. And a further third (33%) did not know any changes were set to take place whatsoever.

The research includes working parents of children under 18 and those currently ‘actively planning’ to have children. Amongst the latter, just 25% understand the changes.

Why do the rule changes matter?

According to Sophie Maunder, parent leave expert and founder of MATRI Coaching, the rules are “the biggest access to expansion since paternity leave eligibility rules were introduced”.

They also address an outdated rule that saw fathers who have been with an employer for less than 26 weeks have zero legal right to any time off when their child was born. The research shows that nearly half (44%) of parents or prospective parents were not actually aware of this – something 74% of parents say was ‘wrong and unfair’.
The major changes will see:

Fathers given the legal right to paternity leave from day one with an employer
Entitlement to unpaid parental leave from day one – rather than after a year
The restriction preventing paternity leave being taken after Shared Parental Leave is removed
Statutory paternity pay will rise from £187.18 per week to £194.32 per week

Around 427,000 fathers have a child whilst in employment each year. With the impact also felt by their partners, close to a million parents are impacted by the new rules.

However, the research from MATRI Coaching shows that the vast majority do not believe the rules in terms of parental time off go far enough. Just 27% say they feel they are fair – with 42% saying they do not go far enough and an additional 27% going further and believing they are ‘not fit for purpose.

Indeed, paternity leave rules in the UK are the least generous of any European country – offering an entitlement to just two weeks’ leave and statutory paternity pay of £187.18 per week.

By comparison, fathers in Spain enjoy up to 17 weeks leave on full pay. Meanwhile those in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Denmark enjoy between 9 and 15 weeks of leave.

Attitudes, as well as rules, need to change

However, the research suggests that it is not just the laws around paternity leave that need change, but attitudes towards taking it.

Official figures show that currently just 4-5% of fathers take advantage of shared parental leave. Amongst fathers in the survey who did not take it, 37% highlighted that it didn’t financially make sense for them and 24% said they were not even aware of it.

But perhaps most concerningly, 22% highlighted concerns it could impact their career and 12% believe there is a ‘stigma’ around men taking time off to look after a baby.

Sophie Maunder, Founder of MATRI Maternity Coaching, said: “First and foremost, we welcome any change to parenting laws that benefits working mothers and fathers. While a step in the right direction I would agree with the results of the survey that show that most do not think paternity leave laws in the UK go far enough.

“All too often, we are expected to work like we don’t have children, and parent like we don’t have jobs. For most new parents, two weeks with the father before he goes back to work just isn’t enough.”