Does anybody else think that the cueenrt rates of pat pay are a joke! How on earth you are supposed to live and cope on what is offered is beyond me. Any one have any views or tips.

I guess it depends on your employer, if they only pay the statutary amount, there is not much you can do. most of the guys i know ended up taking 1 week paternity and 1 week holiday. This was what I did as there was no way that I could have taken such a hit with all the baby stuiff we had to buy.

The way I look at it is, I knew the score before we started to try to get pregnant so it was somthing we had budgeted for.

you are right it does suck, but it is the same if your partner gets payed the statutary maternity pay.

At least we now get something, as fathers never used to. I think Kovacs is right, if you are unlucky enough to work for a company that just pays statutary pay, try and budget in advance and think about taking holiday instead.

Many larger companies will pay full salary and for a longer period than two weeks, I know this doesnt help your situation, but if you are thinking of having another, it maybe something to look at when moving to a new job.

I hear you learner.

I have very good job a small IT company. unfortunatley while the pay is good, they offer nothing other than statutary for everything. I can understand this, however taking paternity would have meant halving my salary for a month, which I could not afford.

I ended up just taking a couple of days off, and then took some holidays a month later, when all of the family had stopped visiting. This actually worked very well, as this was when my wife needed the help.