This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
Parent’s Benefit was introduced in November 2019, initially for 2 weeks per parent, which could be taken at any time in the child’s first year.
It was extended in April 2021 up to 5 weeks per parent, within the child’s first 2 years. This applied to any child born or adopted after 1st November 2019.
It was further extended to 7 weeks per parent, within the child’s first 2 years, in July 2022 for any child born or adopted after 1st July 2020.
Most recently it was extended to 9 weeks per parent, within the child’s first 2 years, in August 2024 for any child born or adopted after 1st August 2022.
Each parent is entitled to take the full benefit, and it is non-transferable between them.
The analysis in this section is focused on Parent's Benefit recipients who previously took Maternity or Paternity Benefit and excludes a small number who took just Parent's Benefit.
The trend in Maternity and Paternity Benefit recipients with subsequent Parent's Benefit claims is show in Figure 5.1
While the percentage of both Maternity and Paternity Benefit recipients who went on to claim Parent's Benefit has increased steadily between 2019 and 2023, the rate for those coming from Maternity Benefit has consistently been greater.
At the time of writing 75.4% of Maternity Benefit claims in 2024 had a subsequent claim for Parent’s Benefit, compared with 43.4% of Paternity Benefit claims. These figures are expected to rise as more claims are made during the child’s second year.
The breakdown, by total weeks of leave taken, for Maternity or Paternity Benefit recipients who subsequently took Parent's Benefit is shown in Figure 5.2. The chart reflects the changes in leave entitlement over time. The analysis considers leave taken up to the end of 2025, for those who started their Maternity or Paternity benefit between 2019 and 2024.
In 2019 a majority of Parent's Benefit recipients claimed the full entitlement of two weeks, for both Maternity and Paternity Benefit recipients, at 87.3% and 77.5% respectively.
As the entitlement has been extended, Maternity Benefit recipients were more likely to take up the additional leave. After the entitlement increased to five weeks in 2021, 40% of the 2020 Maternity Benefit recipients took the full five weeks, compared to 20.3% of Paternity Benefit recipients. For the 2021 cohorts, more than 70% of Maternity Benefit recipients took at least five weeks, compared to 47.4% of Paternity Benefit recipients.
In 2024, after the extension to nine weeks, 42.8% of Maternity Benefit recipients from that year have already taken nine weeks of leave, compared to 11.4% of Paternity Benefit recipients. The 2024 numbers are expected to change as further leave is taken during 2026.
On 19 June 2026 at 1.15pm Figure 5.2 was updated due to an error in the 9 Weeks series. This was incorrectly labelled as Series 9 and had incorrect values of 47.1% for Maternity Benefit, and 12.4% for Paternity Benefit. The correct values are 42.8% for Maternity Benefit, and 11.4% for Paternity Benefit. No other data has been changed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
In 2023 Education (P) was the sector with the highest Parent’s Benefit recipient rates at 6.1 per 100 employees, followed by Human Health & Social Work Activities (Q) at 5.3 per 100 employees, and then Public Administration and Defence (O) at 4.9 per 100 employees.
The lowest rates were in Accommodation and food service activities (I) at 1.5 per 100 employees, Transportation & Storage (H), at 2.1 per 100 employees, and Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing at 2.3 per 100 employees.
The proportion of Maternity Benefit recipients who took Parent's Benefit, by the interval between Maternity Benefit ending and Parent's Benefit starting, is shown in Figure 5.4 for 2023.
There are two prominent peaks in the data. The first is within one week of the Maternity Benefit payment ending, at 19%. The other is 16 weeks after the benefit ends, at 13.4%. These peaks are aligned with the scheme rules, which allow for 16 weeks of unpaid leave at the end of Maternity Benefit.
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