"Financial protection needs to be affordable and available to give parents peace of mind that they can focus their attention on where it’s needed most."
- Rich Horner, Head of Individual Protection at MetLife UK
Of those surveyed (3,003), 22% of parents in the UK admitted that they would survive just seven days without pay if they needed to take time off work to care for their sick child(ren). 19% could survive up to twenty-one days, but 9% said they couldn’t afford to take any time off work if their child(ren) experienced ill-health or injury.
Notably, the length of time working parents believe they would be financially self-sufficient improves to just over three months for those who are self-employed.
48% of all working parents admitted that they don’t have a savings pot set aside in case they need to take unpaid time off work or away from their business in the future. Concerningly, 26% of working fathers and 30% of mothers are without any childcare support should they need it in an emergency.
Among working parents who are without family or friends to rely on for childcare, 44% would have no choice but to take unpaid leave from their employer. In these instances, most parents (35%) said they’d have to use holiday allowance, followed by changing their work schedule (29%), reducing their hours with a pay cut (20%), and quitting altogether so they could look for another job (7%).
“So many working parents have no form of financial protection should they need to take time off to support their children. Accidents or illness are stressful enough, and financial concerns can pile on the difficulties that families face,” stressed Rich Horner, Head of Individual Protection at MetLife UK.
“Financial protection needs to be affordable and available to give parents peace of mind that they can focus their attention on where it’s needed most,” he concluded.
