Parents use annual leave or take unpaid leave to care for sick children - new Mumsnet survey

[JuliaMumsnet]

Hello

This morning we released a survey of more than 1000 parents in partnership with Harriet Harman MP, and with input from Caroline Nokes MP, about how parents in paid work manage when their children are sick. It revealed that:

88% reported having taken time off work to care for a sick primary school aged child. Of these:

• 39% had taken holiday/annual leave
• 29% had taken paid leave
• 29% had taken unpaid leave
• 10% had reduced hours or dropped work
• 7% had taken sick leave
• 2% had left their job

Almost a third of parents (29%), and more than half of C2DE parents (52%), are taking unpaid leave to look after their children, with C2DE parents twice as likely to take unpaid leave than ABC1 parents (26%). Almost four in ten parents had taken holiday/annual leave to look after sick children. ABC1 parents were twice as likely (31%) to take paid leave to look after sick children compared to C2DE parents (15%).

The situation is even more dire for single parents, more than 90% of whom are women. Single parents were almost 60% more likely to take unpaid leave than parents living with a partner (43% compared to 27%).

12% of parents in the survey, most of whom were mothers, had reduced their hours, dropped work, or even left their job to deal with having sick children. 10% had reduced their hours or dropped work due to caring responsibilities related to caring for a sick child.

Unsurprisingly parents supported provision to be able to better manage their children’s sick days without losing pay or losing holiday time.

When asked if they would support extending statutory sick pay to cover a parent when a child of primary school or nursery age is sick, 90% of parents supported the idea, with only 6% opposing it.

More info here and our posts on Instagram here, twitter here and Facebook here.

Let us know what you think!

Thanks

MNHQ

There's also the time when you've actually already used your annual leave - it's not a bottomless pit! My dd had a tonsillectomy and as she had monthly tonsillitis until that point my annual leave was already done by the time of her op so I had to take unpaid leave. There is a special leave option at my work however this didn't qualify (someone must die) I don't think paid leave should be given as standard for every snotty nose but there are times when parents have bigger things to worry about.

I don't see a problem with having to use annual leave or unpaid leave to care for sick children. It's usually me (Not a sexist thing just dh is a teacher and can't take holiday in term time when he was self employed with more flexibility the situation was reversed).

We've also had to use similar leave to deal with crisis with elderly parents (dementia is onvolved)

I don't expect business or tax payer (public sector) to fund me taking leave when my kids are sick.

I've always worked partly from home so have been able to WFH whenever the DC have been unwell. On the couple of occasions they've been too unwell for me to work (in hospital etc) I've always been able to take it as a fully paid sick day.

This is another situation where those of us who are mid to high earners get a better deal. I would imagine low paid employees would be much less likely to get full sick pay, less likely to be able to use it to care for children, and less likely to do jobs that can be done from home.

I'd support better sick pay and paid care days for all.

People should their annual leave to stay at home with their children.

There's also the issue of having a child with medical issues and attending medical appointments. It's half a day if not a full day of leave regularly.

I don't have enough annual leave to cover this for 1 of my children. We attend fortnightly appts and other adhoc apps.

@DocAutumn

People should their annual leave to stay at home with their children.

And when your annual leave is used up?

"People should use annual leave"

What about staff with fixed leave dates? My last job I couldn't take annual leave as the business did shut downs and all leave was fixed dates, my only option as a single parent was to take unpaid leave. It's a shit position to be in.

It's definitely a situation where it's single parents and low earners have a much harder time. I have a colleague with 2 disabled children so they and their spouse both work PT to cover their care needs (a more equitable situation than someone having to be a SAHP). When DS was little and had regular hospital appointments DH would take a week or two of (unpaid) parental leave each year and thus freed up more annual leave for the hospital appointments but that was a choice we could easily afford, now the DC are older we can WFH when they are ill which makes it easier to return to work FT. The only colleague I can think of who took unpaid leave because they had used up all their annual leave was a single parent with an ex who at the time was refusing to do their share of the parenting, they eventually went PT to deal with this kind of situation.

Actually, that's something you haven't covered in your survey, how many parents permanently reduce their hours to care for sick children?

I changed jobs when it became clear that dealing with a child with SEN at school required more flexibility than I had.

I had to take annual leave recently to care for my son while he's been unwell and unable to go to the childminder. It's annoying but you can't expect employers to bend over backwards for parents. It's unfair against non parents and is pretty entitled in some cases. I'd expect a degree of flexibility for one off things but not several days of being unable to work.

@Vbree

I had to take annual leave recently to care for my son while he's been unwell and unable to go to the childminder. It's annoying but you can't expect employers to bend over backwards for parents. It's unfair against non parents and is pretty entitled in some cases. I'd expect a degree of flexibility for one off things but not several days of being unable to work.

In my company it was paid leave to care for someone: could he a parent/partner/child/relative. That doesn’t discriminate against non-parents.

I am so surprised by some of the answers here. These are standard policies in some European countries and last time I checked the German economy is not collapsing because parents are looking after sick children. Both parents have the entitlement so it ensures that fathers also take carers leave and doesn’t disadvantage mothers.

I don't think I would support this. What about people with an elderly sick relative. Would they be allowed the same?

@AdriannaP
In my company it was paid leave to care for
someone: could he a parent/partner/child/ relative. That doesn’t discriminate against non-parents.

That was your company. I think the national policy is you can have time off to look after a relative but it is unpaid leave. This is still better than the UK, though. Although in companies I've worked fir, compassionate leave to look after parents can be taken unpaid, this is not a statutory right. It's up to individual companies.

As for children, child sickness benefit can be claimed which is very generous towards the number of days allowed for parents to take off. It's paid for by your health insurance that everyone has to buy. But it doesn't apply to everyone. There are a number of requirements to be filled, and anyone with private insurance rather than statutory health insurance will not be covered. It's not quite as straightforward as everyone can have fully paid time off to care for children and relatives.

@Viviennemary

I don't think I would support this. What about people with an elderly sick relative. Would they be allowed the same?

Yes of course. It’s paid leave to care for someone limited to a certain number of working days per year. Seriously why wouldn’t you support this? Because employees should be machines and not people with family members who can get sick. If your employer had this policy you would be against it? I don’t understand some people in this country. Valued and appreciated employees that have good benefits generally perform better and the UK hardly has good standard benefits compared to other countries.

[quote madisonbridges]@AdriannaP
In my company it was paid leave to care for
someone: could he a parent/partner/child/ relative. That doesn’t discriminate against non-parents.

That was your company. I think the national policy is you can have time off to look after a relative but it is unpaid leave. This is still better than the UK, though. Although in companies I've worked fir, compassionate leave to look after parents can be taken unpaid, this is not a statutory right. It's up to individual companies.

As for children, child sickness benefit can be claimed which is very generous towards the number of days allowed for parents to take off. It's paid for by your health insurance that everyone has to buy. But it doesn't apply to everyone. There are a number of requirements to be filled, and anyone with private insurance rather than statutory health insurance will not be covered. It's not quite as straightforward as everyone can have fully paid time off to care for children and relatives.[/quote]
Yes it was a benefit in a company I worked for. I know the Uk standard is much lower but companies can apply their own benefits and more generous policies. Personally, I work hard and lots of overtime so giving family time to my employer and to occasionally need a day off to care for my sick children shouldn’t be a massive deal. Both sides can show some flexibility.

Some people don't even get paid sick leave. Only statutory. So it would then be a wider gap between conditions for some employees. Especially poorer paid ones.

I don’t understand what the expectation can be, other than having to use annual leave, or unpaid leave or making up the time? One of the reasons I’m part time if so there’s some leeway for making up hours.

The father should still be paying money and taking responsibility even if they've left their child and the child's mother. Single Mums should legally be getting money from the child's father. Vice versa for single Dad's.

Many people have both children and elderly parents to care for which can massively eat into annual leave unless there are good workplace policies.

The Swedish model of VAB works very well - it stands for Vård av Barn (Care of Children) and allows parents to be home with their sick children up to age 12, if the kids are sick, have medical appointments, or if the normal caregiver isn’t able to look after the children (eg childminder, or parent - if one parent was so sick they couldn’t look after the children, the other could VAB). Close friends / family members can also VAB even if they are not related to the child. You can take out 25 / 50 / 75 / 100% of a day, and you get (I think) around 80% of your salary. It’s a very generous but very smart system, and VABbing is very normalised here, rarely do you hear people complaining that a colleague or employee is off due to VAB.

This would be is unfair on many colleagues. Why should they pick up the slack and cover workloads while some parents get repeated paid full time leave for kids being sick?

@needabreak5

This would be is unfair on many colleagues. Why should they pick up the slack and cover workloads while some parents get repeated paid full time leave for kids being sick?

That's the standard British attitude, that's why it wouldn't work here. Miles behind the Scandinavian countries unfortunately, although it's clear what amazing systems they have managed to standardise. Never mind. Let's carry on the "butwhataboutme?!" attitude.

That’s a fair point, of course, and I’m not so naive as to think that it doesn’t sometimes happen that others have to work overtime if a colleague is off sick…but, there is also much more of a culture of people accepting that services of all different types may be limited if staff aren’t available, and there are laws regulating overtime quite strongly, so people are within a system where it is somewhat simpler at least to keep a reasonable balance.

Sorry, that was in reply to needabreak, not quite sure what I did wrong that it didn’t quote 😫