NWC Advocacy Update: Parental Leave

Published: Tuesday, December 01, 2020

NWC previously called for increased parental leave for Budget 2021 and even though an additional three weeks of paid Parent’s Leave was granted in October, we were disappointed that the extra leave was not available to take right away. We have advocated for this extra leave to be available to parents as soon as possible.

In the meantime, the Department of Social Protection have announced that it is likely to be April 2020 before the systems are in place to pay the increased Parent’s Benefit. However, it is expected that parents will be able to use the leave as soon as the legislation is enacted and claim the payment back at a later date.

While Parent’s Leave was previously only available for babies up to one year old, the Government intends to extend the period in which Parent's Leave can be taken up until a child turns two, for each parent of all children born or adopted on or after 1 Nov 2019.