Written evidence from Parental Pay Equality (CFA0136)
HOUSE OF LORDS CHILDREN AND FAMILIES ACT 2014 SELECT COMMITTEE INQURY
Additional Evidence & References for Lords Children & Families Act 2014 Select Committee
Olga FitzRoy - Founder, Parental Pay Equality June-July 2022
Demand for Shared Parental Leave amongst self-employed
In the oral evidence session I mentioned 56% of self-employed families would have taken Shared Parental Leave in the past had it been available to them, and 74% would do so in the future - these stats are taken from our 2017 study which was submitted to the Taylor Review.
http://www.parentalpayequality.org.uk/survey-results/
The Taylor Review also recommended equalising parental leave entitlements between employees and the self-employed. “ …the Government should also address those remaining areas of entitlement – parental leave in particular – where self-employed people lose out.”
Additionally, the charity, Parents in Performing Arts published a study in 2019 that showed that 72% of parents would take Shared Parental Leave if it was available to them.
http://www.pipacampaign.com/balancing-act-survey/
Numbers of self-employed people
According to the ONS the number of self-employed people peaked at 4.7 million in Q4 2019, and has since gone down to 4.1 million. Interestingly we now have fewer self-employed people than when the C&F Act was first passed in Q1 of 2014, where there were 4.5 million.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/dyzn/lms, although consultations on costs of introducing shared parental leave etc were being done in 2011 when numbers were around 4 million.
The consultation document also shows that the intention was to make shared parental leave (referred to as Flexible Parental Leave) available to the self-employed from 2018.
From page 17:
59. We also intend to make arrangements for working parents who do not meet the qualifying requirements to receive statutory payments. Such a provision will not be introduced until 2018 at the earliest. This will allow time for a new payment mechanism to be developed and to ensure it interacts appropriately with the new Universal Credit system. Once it is introduced, employed parents who do not qualify for Statutory Flexible Parental Pay (if they do not meet the Lower Earnings Limit, for instance) and self-employed parents who meet the qualifying conditions (which we anticipate will mirror many of the requirements for Maternity Allowance) will be eligible for this new payment mechanism.
Evidence for benefit of more parental leave for fathers
A 2010 study by Elly-Ann Johansson (Lindstrom) shows the beneficial impact of fathers taking parental leave on the mothers salary - for every one month of fathers parental leave the mothers salary goes up by 6.7%.
There is another study by HR Magazine that shows women are more likely to progress when fathers share childcare and work more flexibly: The survey of 773 UK working fathers found that where men played an equal or main caregiver role in childcare 47% of female partners had progressed their careers since having children. However, when men played very little or a moderate role in childcare only 26% of female partners had progressed their careers after childbirth.
Evidence for negative impact of the current system women’s careers
Qualitative evidence submitted as comments to our petition that was signed by almost 10, 000 people shows that the lack of an ability for self-employed families to share leave also had a negative impact on the mothers career.
As a self employed mother my business has all but disappeared as childcare has been solely down to me 6 days a week since my daughter was born. If we had had shared parental leave we both would have been able to maintain our careers and my daughter and husband would have greatly benefitted from having more time together and we would have had a balanced life rather than one akin to the 1950s.- Self-employed mum
As a self employed mother shared parental pay would have been a Godsend. Being out of the loop for so long meant it was incredibly hard for me to get back in but we needed the security that maternity pay gave. If my husband could have shared this it would not have been so difficult to get back into work. Two and a half years later I am just getting back on track!
Self-employed mum
Being self employed, my biggest fear about having children is my entitlement to maternity leave. I work 6 days a week and have built up my business from scratch, I don't want to lose it if I choose to have children.
Self-employed woman
I am a self-employed woman and new mother, married to self-employed man. He (and to a lesser extent, I) worked to the point of exhaustion during my pregnancy in order that we would be able to have enough money for him to take some time off. We are right in the thick of it now, with a beautiful 3 week old and it is absolutely barbaric to think that had we not been able to do that, he would have been immediately seperated from his son and I would have had to cope on my own. It is also worth noting that our son spent the first week of his life in intensive care. I was able to room in with him. There was no provision for my husband to do this. It would have made an incredibly traumatic situation so much worse had he had to go back to work immediately.
Self-employed mum
I am currently looking after my baby full time whilst looking for and setting up freelance work to ensure we have some money coming in when my maternity allowance is up. I'm absolutely exhausted. As the higher earner it would be so much better if my partner could claim the maternity benefit from here on so I could start working.
Self-employed mum
I had to drop out my acting career after 12 years because I had to look after my 2 children for 4 yrs altogether. If their father had had shared parental leave, I could have continued to take on projects and so could he at the same time, therefore sustaining my career and withholding my experience in the industry. I am slowly returning, but it feels as though I am starting all over again, like the first 12 yrs never happened.
Self-employed mum
A form of Shared Parental would allow mothers to work on their business and retain key clients while their partner undertook periods of childcare, ensuring a more successful return to work after the leave period. This is key for self-employed families as mothers do not have the same employment protections as employees. Our 2017 study by Parental Pay Equality submitted to the Taylor Review showed 54% of families felt that the mothers’ business suffered through not being able to share leave.
Our own study in 2018 found 20% were back to their pre-baby earnings by the time their child was 2, compared to 26% of employed mothers who were working full time by the time their child was 2, and that of those who were not back to their pre-baby earnings, over 60% wanted to be working more. http://www.parentalpayequality.org.uk/survey-results-in/
The self-employed Gender Pay Gap
The self-employed gender pay gap was measured at 43% by IPSE in 2020 https://www.ipse.co.uk/ipse-news/news-listing/men-earn-43-more-women-self-employment-research.html much higher than the gender pay gap among employees which was measured at 15.4% in the most recent ONS statistics. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2021
Self-employed Adoption Leave
Currently there is no paid adoption leave for self-employed adopters.
https://www.gov.uk/adoption-pay-leave/eligibility
In 2016 the Independent Review by Julie Deane MBE recommended a form of statutory adoption pay / allowance for self-employed adopters but this has not been implemented.
“Government should consider introducing a new ‘Adoption Allowance’ for selfemployed adopters. In line with Statutory Adoption Pay, this should also be enhanced to 90% of earnings in the first 6 weeks - bringing ‘Adoption Allowance’ in line with Statutory Adoption Pay and the above recommendations for Maternity Allowance. The remaining 33 weeks of ‘Adoption Allowance’ should be paid at the lower of the statutory flat rate or 90% of earnings (in the case of low earners).”
Ministers have referred campaigners and MP’s to discretionary funding by local authorities, but there are issues with that which were laid out in the Westminster Hall debate on 21st March 2022. https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2022-03-21/debates/42C1D133-9CEF-482D-994F-5F971FFB8BC4/SupportForNewAdoptiveParents
As an example I mentioned both my local authority, Lambeth, and Adopt London websites, neither of which contain any guidance for self-employed adopters, at least not any that is searchable or readily accessible.
Other Parental Leave Systems
In preparing for this evidence session I looked into various parental leave systems in Europe - as mentioned in the oral evidence, the amount of money and time afforded to parents varied, but in general there was not this huge disparity between the paid leave for self-employed and employed people.
There was also, in many countries, a distinction between maternity / paternity leave, for the period immediately before (for mothers) and after the birth, followed by a system of parental leave that was in general more flexible and appeared designed to give both parents the option of a partial income replacement while they worked fewer hours for example, or took extended holidays in line with school etc, and available to be taken over a number of years.
There was only one country of those observed (The Netherlands) apart from the UK where there was no way for a self-employed father to take some paid leave in order to care for his child in the first year of his or her life.
Country | Min rate of pay (month =weekly x 4.3, daily x 30.5) | Max rate of pay (month) (weekly x 4.3, daily x 30.5) | max paid period mother (months) | max paid period father(months) | max period combined(months) | Adopters rate | Can they work whilst claiming? |
UK | £116 | £670 | 9 | 0 | N/A | 0 | Y, 10 KIT days |
Germany* | £120 | £1,544.00 | 12-24 | 12-24 | 14-28 | same as birth parents | Y as long as under 32hrs week |
Sweden** | £439 | £2,492 | 16 | 16 | 16 | same as birth parents |
|
Luxembourg* | £993.40 | £3,084.50 | 10-16 | 6 - 12 | 16 | same as birth parents | Y - p/t options available |
France* | £142.90 | £1,429.60 | 3.7 (16 weeks) | 1 | 4 | same as birth parents |
|
Netherlands* |
| £1,496.86 | 3.7 (16 weeks) | 0 | N/A | 0 | Y - parental days up to 26 x hours worked |
Spain* | £461.94 | £3,495.70 | 3.7 (16 weeks) | 3.7 (16 weeks) | 7.4 | same as birth parents |
|
Ireland* | £923.30 | £923.30 | 7.6 | 2 | 9 | same as birth parents | N, but good range of admin tasks explicitly allowed |
Italy* | 30% average earnings | 80% average earnings | 8 | 10-11days + 3months | 11 | same as birth parents | Yes - "no obligation to be absent from work" |
Romania*** | £217.12 | £1,476.45 | 18 weeks+ 11months | 5 days+11 months | 18 weeks (Mat) +12 months | considered on 'case by case basis' |
|
Denmark**** |
| £2,214.48 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 12 | same as birth parents | Yes, up to half-time |
*exchange = 0.85889 Table of 1 Euro to British Pound Exchange Rate, 17th June |
** Friday 17 June 2022 1 SEK = 0.080035 GBP |
***Friday 17 June 2022 Fri 17/06/2022 1 RON = 0.1737 GBP |
****Friday 17 June 2022 1 DKK = 0.11547 GBP |
References:
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