Launching the report, The Home Front , Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg argued that fathers should get up to ten months in parental leave and said that the Government would hold a consultation on flexible, shared parental leave to be introduced in 2015.
He also confirmed that the Government would go ahead with plans proposed by Harriet Harman under the previous Labour government. This means that from April, if a mother returns to work early during her maternity leave after 20 weeks, the father will be able to take over the mother's leave and be entitled to statutory pay of £125 a week, for 26 weeks.
The Demos survey of more than 1,000 parents found that a third of fathers in the UK work more than 48 hours per week, compared with a quarter of men without children, and that 12 per cent of fathers work more than 60 hours a week.
The number of working mothers has risen, with 41 per cent of mothers in a couple working part-time, and 28 per cent of lone mothers working full-time.
Of the parents surveyed, the majority said they felt money was their biggest obstacle. Howeve,r they felt guilty about working so much, a feeling that got worse as their children grew older.
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