MPs call for end to £10k penalty on new fathers

Poor government support means taking on childcare duties is costly for men, finds Marianna Hunt

Politicians have urged the Government to rethink its parental leave policy, which currently means millions of fathers are unable to spend time with their newborn children, and mothers miss out on career opportunities.

Uptake of the Government’s shared parental leave scheme has been dismal, with many families finding it would cost them far more than if only the mother took time off work. Just 1pc of the almost one million fathers eligible for shared parental leave have made use of it, according to the Trades Union Congress ( TUC), which represents unions.

Introduced in 2015, the policy offers qualifying parents the chance to share up to 37 weeks of pay and 50 weeks of leave between them.

Politicians, including Alexandra Phillips, Mayor of Brighton and Hove; Christine Jardine, MP for Edinburgh West; and Tulip Siddiq, MP for Hampstead and Kilburn and a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Maternity, want the Government to offer families a more generous incentive to encourage parents to share the burden of early childcare.

Ms Jardine called for a minimum of six weeks of paid leave for new fathers.

Becky O’Connor, of pension provider Royal London, said take-up of shared parental leave has been poor because, in the vast majority of cases, using the scheme rather than taking maternity leave would leave families worse off.

Mothers on basic statutory maternity pay receive 90pc of their average weekly earnings before tax for the first six weeks, followed by £148.68 or 90pc of their average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for the next 33 weeks. Families opting for shared parental leave get all 39 weeks at the lower rate: £148.68, or 90pc of their earnings if this is lower.

“Women are also very likely to receive an enhanced maternity pay package, whereas men are more likely to only get statutory paternity pay. As a result, it still makes much more sense financially for women to take all of the leave,” Ms O’Connor added.

A typical enhanced maternity pay package is often three months at full pay, three months half pay and three months as statutory, she said. Statutory maternity pay ends after nine months. In a couple where each partner earns £40,000, a mother taking a year off on this package would get £16,931 – giving them a combined £56,931 for the year before tax. If the same mother returned to work after six weeks, letting the father take responsibility for the rest of the first year of childcare, they would earn just £46,281 between them, Royal London calculated.

Some private firms have filled the gap. A handful – including drinks giant Diageo, insurer Aviva, asset manager

Ervin Trykowski, above, with his wife and son, and Finn Clawson, top, with his family, got equal pay rights

Investec and Telegraph Media Group, the publisher of this newspaper – give equal rights to both parents, with up to six months’ full pay for new mothers and fathers taking time off. Unlike the statutory scheme, take-up has been huge.

Aviva employee Finn Clawson, 38, was able to take four months off, fully paid, to care for his baby daughter, Constance.

“It was an incredibly special time, and it meant I wasn’t worried about missing out on important moments while at work,” said Mr Clawson. He added that there was no way he could have taken those four months off unpaid.

For mothers running their own businesses, the opportunity to share the task of childcare is even more important.

Ervin Trykowski, of Diageo, is currently five months into his six months of fully paid family leave. His wife, Gemma, runs her own business, so did not have access to a company maternity leave policy after the birth of their son, Rupert.

Mrs Trykowski said she had worried about how she would juggle work and a baby. “Finding out about Diageo’s policy relieved a lot of pressure. I don’t know how we would have coped otherwise,” she said.

Before the policy was introduced, 13pc of fathers at Diageo took more than two weeks of family leave – the national average. Now 87pc have done so. At Aviva, the number is 97pc, while at The Telegraph 100pc of new fathers have taken more than two weeks.

Aman claiming his employer’s parental pay discriminates against birth fathers hopes his legal battle will pave the way to a fairer deal for new dads.

Barry Price is appealing against an employment tribunal’s judgment that he was treated fairly by his employer, Powys County Council, which told him three weeks before the birth of his daughter that he was not eligible for enhanced shared parental pay.

The panel’s dismissal of his claim cited Court of Appeal decisions from May in the cases of Ali v Capita and Hextall v Leicestershire Police, which found that enhanced shared parental pay is not comparable to enhanced maternity pay because the latter compensates for the added burdens of childbearing and birth trauma.

However, Mr Price’s case is based on the fact that Powys council does provide enhanced pay for adoptive parents. He said: “Powys’s policy marginalises biological fathers. Why aren’t we entitled to the same pay as adoptive mothers and fathers? If you’re a parent, you’re a parent – end of story.”

Mr Price had planned to take on the bulk of parenting duties on the arrival of his first child. He said he asked about his employer’s enhanced pay policy four months before his wife Laura Thomas’s due date of August 2018. Her work as a self-employed tourism consultant entitled her only to statutory payments of £148.68 a week.

Mr Price said that, despite repeated requests, the authority took 13 weeks to reach a decision. “There was no way we could afford for me to take substantial time off, and we had little to no time to sort out our finances and childcare provision,” he added.

A spokesman for Powys council said: “Our policy on parental pay is based on national statutory requirements. It does not discriminate against males as it applies equally to females who are not the birth mother.” He said the policy was also a means of supporting birth mothers so they do not feel pressure to return to work.

Barrister Anthony Korn, who is representing Mr Price on appeal, said success “hinges on whether the appeal tribunal agrees that a man on shared parental leave is entitled to the same payment as a woman on adoptive leave”.

‘Women are very likely to receive an enhanced leave package, while men are not’