Family leave reform has produced desired results - more and more fathers take care of their child at home for a longer period

During the two-year transition period, the family leave reform has produced the desired results. Following the reform, the number of days of parental allowance taken out by fathers has almost doubled.

Following the family leave reform, parents can get parental allowance for altogether more days than before. Under the new rules, both parents have 160 days of parental allowance, and 63 of these days can be given up in favour of the other parent. There remains 97 days for the parent’s own use, and these days cannot be given up in favour of the other parent. Parental allowance days can be used until the child reaches the age of 2 years.

The reform took effect on 4 September 2022. Now the first children born while the new rules have been implemented have reached the age of 2 years, and it is possible to see how the parents have used the parental allowance.

The aim of the family leave reform was a more even distribution of parental allowance days between the parents. This aim seems to have been achieved. Kela’s statistics show that the fathers of children born in 2022 on or after 4 September have on average taken out 78 parental allowance days. The fathers of children born while the old rules were still implemented, i.e. in 2021, have on average taken out 44 parental allowance days, and the fathers of children born in 2020 on average 41 parental allowance days.

“The new rules emphasise values in society by aiming to even out the days of parental leave between the parents, and according to the statistics, we are moving towards this aim. There are several factors behind the increased use of parental leaves by fathers. The family leave reform is certainly one factor that has affected developments,” says Johanna Aholainen, Lead Specialist.

Following the reform, families apply for parental allowance in more periods than before. Whereas under the rules on family leaves according to the old legislation families often filed two applications, families now file more applications following the new, increased flexibility provided by the family leave reform.

“Families divide the childcare responsibilities more evenly between both parents and plan the family leaves in shorter periods. Kela receives more applications from one and the same family. The popularity of the partial parental allowance is also increasing,” says Aholainen.

Kela monitors the effects of the family leave reform and will provide information about them also in the future.