Parental Leave (Equalisation) Bill

A

BILL

TO

Expand and equalise payments and rights for new parents.

BE IT ENACTED by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

Section One: Definitions

(1) For the purposes of this act, a “parent” shall refer to the biological or adoptive parents of a child, who have custody of that child, as recognised under law.

(2) “The pregnant parent” shall refer to the individual who gave birth to the child.

Section Two: Existing System

(1) Statutory Maternity Pay shall be renamed to “Parental Leave Pay” and all individuals currently receiving Statutory Maternity Pay shall automatically receive Parental Leave Pay instead.

(2) All individuals previously eligible for Maternity Allowance but not for Statutory Maternity Pay shall also be entitled to claim the new Parental Leave Pay.

(3) Any parent of a child who would have been eligible for Maternity Allowance or Statutory Maternity Pay based on their income but who was not eligible due to not being the pregnant parent shall be entitled to Parental Leave Pay during their parental leave.

(4) Sections 35 and 35A of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 are repealed.

Section Three: Entitlements to Parental Leave

(1) All legally recognised parents of a child shall be entitled to a combined period of parental leave of 480 days. This entitlement shall be divided equally between all parents - for example, in a two-parent household, each parent shall be entitled to 240 days of parental leave.

(a) In the event that a parent ceases to be a legal guardian of a child, they shall forfeit any remaining entitlement to parental leave days that have not been utilised prior to the termination of their legal guardianship.(b) Any unused parental leave days accrued by a former parent shall be redistributed equally among all remaining parents.

(2) Parental leave may be taken at any time before a child’s eighth birthday.

(3) A parent may transfer up to one-third of their days of parental leave to another parent if they choose to.

Section Four: Parental Leave Pay

(1) For up to half of an individual’s total quota of parental leave, they shall receive Parental Leave Pay from the relevant Department into their bank account weekly at a rate of 100% of the individual’s ordinary weekly pay for each week of parental leave taken but no less than £200 per week.

(2) For the final half of the individual’s entitlement to parental leave, they shall receive Parental Leave Pay from the relevant Department into their bank account weekly at a rate of 50% of the individual’s ordinary weekly pay for each week of parental leave taken, but no less than £100 per week.

(3) Income from Parental Leave Pay shall be considered taxable income from work, and shall be counted towards the Basic Income taper.

Section Five: Entitlement to Reduce Hours

(1) A new parent shall be entitled to unilaterally revise their contract at any point up to their child’s first birthday to require up to 25% fewer weekly hours. There shall be no financial compensation to the parent for the hours not worked.

Section Six: Enactment, Extent, and Short Title

(1) This bill shall come into effect 90 days after receiving Royal Assent.

(2) This bill shall extend to the entire United Kingdom.

(3) This bill may be cited as the Parental Leave (Equalisation) Act 2022.

This Bill was written by the Right Honourable /u/colossalteuthid, with revision and editing by /u/NicolasBroaddus, on behalf of His Majesty's 32nd Government.

Opening Speech

Speaker, I come before this House to bring before it something that once was, some six years ago. It is unfortunately a bill that was lost to history, even its designation being overwritten by another bill with the same numbering. It was authored by a good friend of mine in the days of the Radical Socialist Party, /u/colossalteuthid, and with some modification to fit modern standards, it is my honour to bring it back to the House.

Maternity leave and pay is one of the cornerstones of modern welfare states, and we have a very generous and extensive policy for helping new mothers. However, not only does this overlook nonbinary Brits, as well as transgender men who can still become pregnant, it puts the pressure of parenting structurally only on one member of the family. It has long been lamented that the father doesn’t pull his weight in raising a child, and this is most certainly true. However this is in large part because he simply does not receive the leave and accommodations to be a presence in his infant’s life.

We seek to completely restructure existing Maternity Allowance and Statutory Maternity Pay into a new Parental Leave Pay. Likewise, existing maternity leave will be reformed into a new Parental Leave system. Through this, all legal parents of a child will be entitled to their share of a 480 day pool of Parental Leave. The parents will be able to transfer time within this to a certain extent, as while we do not wish to reinforce the norm of one parent doing primary caregiving, we recognise that parents may have differing work schedules.

It is far past time we started treating all parents of child with both the same responsibilities and the same accommodations. This bill will give fathers, and many other parents, the chance to be a more active presence in their childrens’ lives. Likewise it will free those who give birth from being required to be the sole caregiver regardless of their own circumstances.

This division will end at 10pm on the 31st May.