YY - in Germany here and DH took 2 full months off with DS2, then went back part time for 3 months, and is planning to take 4 full months off with DS3. It's paid at 66% of his salary so while we will need to make up the difference, it's affordable.
But - I do sometimes think people say "There is loads of support for BF in the UK" and what they mean is that midwives/HVs etc are told to tell you to breastfeed a lot or look disapproving at the mention of formula. When I/others say there isn't a lot of support for BF in the UK we do not mean support as in cheerleading, we mean practical, helpful, useful knowledge. This is what is generally lacking. Not always, but the general level of support is not good. I don't think it's only true that more people speak out when they have had a bad time. I think more people get bad advice/nonexistant advice than get good advice. We know from stats that around 2/3 of mums who start breastfeeding (which is about 75% I think at the last count) experience problems. Then around half of those (so 1/3 each or 25% of mums overall) are able to overcome those problems and get to a point they are happy with, and the other 25% are not and end up stopping earlier than they would have liked to. So that's probably 50% not needing support (because they didn't BF at all or because they BF without problems) and of people who did need support, at least half of them did not receive enough. I say at least half - because within the group of "I had problems but was able to overcome them" some will have simply overcome them despite poor support, or through luck.
There are free support groups, but they are not clearly signposted and so people don't always know about them. It's also a bit of a postcode lottery as to whether or not you have access to these. They are also generally volunteer run which is different to other countries - most countries either employ lactation consultants directly in their health service, or it's something health insurance will pay towards. In the UK it's left up to charities! Often these charities have their own agenda as well which can make them off-putting or mean that the message is blended with something else (for example, La Leche League are excellent for BF advice but are also extremely pro attachment parenting and explicitly do not support combi feeding by choice, sleep training, weaning before a certain age or various other decisions that parents may wish to make).
There are IBCLCs in most areas of the UK but these are private health services and so they cost. People in the UK obviously aren't used to paying for healthcare, and so can be a bit suspicious of these kinds of services. Because it's not really mentioned on the NHS, people often don't know they exist. If they have heard that they exist then it can be a bit of a minefield trying to work out what's a real qualification and what's just a made up term. Many people cannot afford to pay for help or are (understandably) unwilling to pay for something which they can't guarantee will definitely help, especially if they haven't heard of it before and nobody they know has ever used one.
Sometimes people get advice from their midwife or health visitor and assume that is the best info they can get and don't realise that there are other things that could have been done. That's the kind of thing I class as poor support, although the person might say or feel that they have had good support. It's hugely frustrating to see this kind of narrative play out time and time again.