MP for Nee Soo GRC
Question
To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development for each year in the past five years under the Government-Paid Childcare Leave (GPCL) Scheme (a) what percentage of working mothers took (i) 4 days of childcare leave (ii) 5 days of childcare leave or (iii) 6 days of childcare leave respectively; and (b) what percentage of working fathers took (i) 4 days of childcare leave (ii) 5 days of childcare leave or (iii) 6 days of childcare leave respectively.
To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development for each year in the past five years under the Extended Child Care Leave (ECL) Scheme (a) what percentage of working mothers took exactly (i) 1 day of childcare leave or (ii) 2 days of childcare leave respectively; and (b) what percentage of working fathers took exactly (i) 1 day of childcare leave or (ii) 2 days of childcare leave respectively.
Answer
1 Working parents with citizen children below 7 years of age are provided with 6 days of paid child care leave. Employers absorb the cost for the 1st to 3rd days, and the Government reimburses employers for the 4th to 6th days under the Government-Paid Childcare Leave (GPCL) scheme. Utilisation of these government-paid leaves has been slowly rising. The estimated percentages of eligible working mothers and fathers who took 4, 5, and 6 days of GPCL respectively in the past 3 years are in Table 1 below.
Claim Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. of days of GPCL taken* | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Mothers (%) | 3 | 5 | 48 | 2 | 5 | 48 | 3 | 5 | 49 |
Fathers (%) | 3 | 5 | 42 | 2 | 5 | 42 | 3 | 5 | 43 |
Table 1. Percentage of working mothers and fathers who took 4, 5, and 6 days of GPCL respectively, 2016 – 2018
*. These numbers do not reflect those who took 1 to 3 days of child care leave only, and excludes those whose employers do not submit claims.
2 Introduced in 2013, the Government-Paid ECL provides working parents with 2 days of paid extended childcare leave per year if they have a citizen child aged 7 to 12 years. The estimated percentages of eligible working mothers and fathers who took 1 or 2 days of ECL respectively are in Table 2 below.
Claim Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. of days of ECL taken* | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Mothers (%) | 2 | 36 | 2 | 37 | 2 | 38 |
Fathers (%) | 2 | 29 | 2 | 30 | 2 | 31 |
Table 2. Percentage of working mothers and fathers who took 1 or 2 days of ECL respectively, 2016 – 2018
* Parents who took leave 0.5 days and 1.5 days of leave are treated as having taken 1 and 2 days of leave respectively.
3 Breakdown of data on the take-up of GPCL and Extended Childcare Leave (ECL) is not available before 2016.