Crack Down on Women ‘double-dipping’ on Paid Parental Leave

Turnbull to Crack Down on Women ‘double-dipping’ on Paid Parental Leave. Malcolm Turnbull has done a U-turn on paid maternity leave and accused women of ‘double dipping’ when accessing paid parental leave. The current model of paid parental leave allows women to access a government-funded parental leave, regardless of employer-paid leave.

The new parental leave reforms, set to come in as early as January 1st, 2017 if passed through the Senate, limit access to government-funded leave if a woman is being paid parental leave by her employer also.

The changes could impact thousands of women who are already pregnant, who may have planned and budgeted for their parental leave based on access to the government-funded paid parental leave entitlements.

Shadow minister for Families and Social Services, Jenny Macklin, estimates that around 80,000 women across Australia will be impacted and could be out of pocket by up to $12,000.

Social Services Minister, Christian Porter, said the paid parental leave scheme is designed to get women back to work, rather than allow them time to bond with their babies. He explained that for the paid parental leave scheme to be sustainable it needed to find savings somewhere so was looking to families that received paid leave from their employers also.

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