Less than two per cent of eligible parents use Shared Parental Leave

New research shows that less than two per cent of eligible couples use the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme, with its uptake falling 17 per cent in the past year.

Ever since its launch in 2016, SPL has struggled to get off the ground, with its take-up fluctuating between one per cent and two per cent every year.

The scheme offers both new parents the opportunity to share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of statutory pay between them. The rate of pay is £151.20 per week, half the UK minimum wage for full-time employees.

The commercial law firm EMW says that many parents are understandably reluctant for the primary earner to temporarily stop working and see their income fall to just over £600 per month. This, in turn, feeds the gender pay gap and lack of work-life balance for mothers and fathers, breeding a culture where the breadwinner is forced back to work and traditional gender norms are enforced.

Jon Taylor, Principal at EMW, described the £150 a week rate as “unfeasible” for most parents, and said: “Increasing the amount offered to new parents under the scheme would assist new mothers, who are often the ones to take most of the childcare responsibilities. Shared parental leave could more equally share out these responsibilities and reduce the impact of maternity leave on a woman’s career.”

The solution could be boosting the pay rates, which may work to eliminate the gender pay gap by incentivising couples to use the scheme, and enabling fathers to take on greater childcare responsibilities.