Parental leave and pay for new parents to be reviewed by ministers
The amount of time off and pay new parents can get after the birth of a child will be looked at in a "landmark" review, the government says.Ministers said they wanted to modernise the system across paternity, maternity and shared parental leave, which campaigners said had been "overlooked for years".Campaign group The Dad Shift called the review the "best chance in a generation to improve the system and make sure it actually works for working families".A committee of MPs recently called the UK's parental leave system "one of the worst in the developed world" with "fundamental flaws".Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said jobs would be lost if more costs were "piled on to employers".
June's report by the Women and Equalities Committee said "bold" action was needed to address those flaws, but warned that any changes would require significant investment.Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said businesses, like parents, had been telling ministers that the system needed a "serious looking at"."We haven't had a serious look at parental leave for several decades now in the UK," he said. "The time is now, and if people have got strong views on that, I want them to come and get involved."The shadow business secretary said: "If you've no job in the first place it doesn't matter how much family leave you get."
The government's review will look at statutory leave, which is the minimum amount employers have to provide by law and is funded by the government. Some companies choose to top this up for their employees using their own money.Statutory maternity leave allows most new mums and birthing parents to take up to 52 weeks off work.Statutory maternity pay is paid for up to 39 weeks, providing 90% of a person's average weekly earnings - before tax - for the first six weeks.The following 33 weeks pays either £187.18 per week, or 90% of their average weekly earnings again - whichever is lower.Mums are ineligible for statutory maternity pay if they are self-employed or earn less than £125 a week.Statutory paternity leave, which was introduced in 2003, allows most new fathers and second parents in the UK to take up to two weeks off work.It applies to all partners, regardless of gender, after the birth, surrogacy or adoption of a baby. Like with maternity leave, those who are eligible receive £187.18 a week or 90% of their average earnings, whichever is lower, for those two weeks.That works out as less than 50% of the National Living Wage - the minimum amount that employers are legally required to pay anyone aged 21 and over.Fathers cannot receive statutory paternity leave and pay if they are self-employed or earn less than £125 a week.Shared parental leave was introduced in 2014 and allows parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay after the birth or adoption of a child.Announcing its review of the whole parental leave system, the government acknowledged that take-up of shared parental leave was very low, as well as the fact that one in three dads do not take paternity leave because they cannot afford to.George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift campaign, said paternity leave was "groundbreaking" when it was introduced by the last Labour government, but by remaining unchanged since then had become the "least generous in Europe".He said he was "delighted" with the review and "ambitious for the change to come".Rachel Grocott, chief executive of the Pregnant Then Screwed charity, said improving parental leave overall would help to close the gender pay gap and give children the best start in life, adding that investing in the system was a "no-brainer".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
Putin preparing for new operation in European territories, Zelensky warns
Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russia is 'not looking for a way out of the war' and instead preparing to launch a new operation in Europe. Posting on X on Monday (30 June), the Ukrainian president said that Vladimir Putin is 'not changing his plans' and is always 'looking for where to exploit a weakness'. He cautioned: 'They are preparing for new operations including on the territory of European territories.' 'They must see that there is the wherewithal to stop them everywhere,' he said, adding that Ukraine 's allies should show 'more resilience, more coordination and efficiency of our common security architecture in Europe'. On Tuesday (1 July), a Russia-appointed official claimed that Moscow troops have occupied all of illegally-annexed Luhansk, making it the only Ukrainian region to have fallen in its entirety during the war.
Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
BoE's Bailey sees weakening labour market in CNBC interview
LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - Britain's labour market is softening and the key question is how that will feed through into inflation returning to target, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Tuesday. "I do see some underlying weakening, particularly in the labour market - and the labour market is softening," Bailey said in an interview with CNBC from a central bank summit in Sintra, Portugal. He repeated his view that interest rates are likely to fall gradually. On the outcome of the BoE's next meeting in August, Bailey said: "We'll see."
The Independent
25 minutes ago
- The Independent
Immigration reforms for ‘complete reset' to be introduced in Parliament
Legislation to end the recruitment of care workers from abroad is set to be introduced as part of a raft of immigration reforms. New rules to be laid in Parliament on Tuesday will also seek to increase salary and skills thresholds up to degree level for skilled workers, which will cut eligibility for 111 occupations. A new time-limited temporary shortage list will also be introduced until the end of 2026 for below degree level, where recruiting foreign workers is key to build critical infrastructure or industrial strategy. But those workers will no longer be able to bring their families and will not be entitled to salary and visa fee discounts. The legislative measures are the first policy changes to be introduced from the Government's Immigration White Paper to tighten controls and cut migration to the UK. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 'We are delivering a complete reset of our immigration system to restore proper control and order, after the previous government allowed net migration to quadruple in four years. 'These new rules mean stronger controls to bring migration down, to restore order to the immigration system and to ensure we focus on investing in skills and training here in the UK.' The changes, if approved by MPs and peers, will come into force from July 22. Further measures from the White Paper such as increasing English language requirements and raising the immigration skills charge are also expected to be in place by the end of the year. The White Paper is aimed at reducing numbers, clamping down on abuses of the system and ending a reliance on cheap foreign labour. Home Office estimates indicate that changes from the plan could reduce the number of people coming to the UK by up to 100,000 per year, when looking at eight of its proposals including on study and work routes and a higher level of English language requirement. But the move to scrap care worker visas has sparked concerns from the sector, with GMB national officer Will Dalton describing the decision as 'potentially catastrophic' as the care sector was 'utterly reliant on migrant workers' and still had more than 130,000 vacancies across the country. The Home Office believes there are 40,000 potential members of staff originally brought over by 'rogue' providers who could work in the sector while UK staff are trained up. Transitional arrangements for overseas care workers already in the UK have also been set out on Tuesday, according to the department.
