This is why you may have seen 'paternity charge notices' across Worthing

Parents involved in The Dad Shift (TDS) campaign placed a different type of yellow PCNs in parks around town on – Tuesday (October 14) – to ‘highlight the soaring cost of a baby’s first year and the huge pressure to provide’.

This was part of a nationwide wave of action, which was called to protest the gap between the £5-9k average cost of a child’s first year of life and ‘ridiculous’ £374.36 currently given to dads in paternity pay.

The notes, which resemble parking tickets, inform those who find them that ‘costs for so many things have soared in the past few years, but the country's paternity leave system remains stuck in the past’.

It adds: “Dads and non-birthing parents get just two weeks on less than half the minimum wage, £374.36 for the fortnight – not even enough to buy the average pram. Self-employed people get nothing. It's the worst offer in Europe and massive financial pressure is wrecking the health of working dads and their families.”

The message is borne out by polling conducted for TDS & Movember of a representative sample of new fathers.

This revealed that 62 per cent of new dads agreed that ‘my family and I struggled under the pressure that comes when a new baby arrives’. Sixty one per cent said the pressure to provide affected their mental health, whilst 51 per cent said impacted their physical health.

Sixty five per cent said it meant they were less present than they would like to be, 87 per cent agreed that the value of statutory paternity pay is ‘ridiculous’ and 57 per cent agreed that ‘the stress of financial insecurity during the first year of life has been a material influence on our decision making in respect of having more children’.

George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift said: “£374.36 might be enough for a weekend away, but to meaningfully help with the costs when a new baby arrives? Ridiculous. And that without mentioning the self-employed dads who don’t get a penny!

“Working fathers and non-birthing partners pay their share and yet when a new baby arrives there’s next to nothing left to help with costs that have skyrocketed in recent years.

“The responsibility to provide is one we take really seriously as dads, but with zero support the pressure it comes with is wrecking people’s health just when their families need them. No wonder more than half of dads are put off having more kids by the risk of financial insecurity.”

Research from TDS shows statutory paternity pay rose just 23 per cent over the past five years while costs of basics such as milk formula rose by over 25 per cent in less than half the time, and nappies and wipes rose between 20-37 per cent in just 12 months.

Polling has also found that more than half of dads experience mental and physical health consequences ‘arising from the pressure to provide’, and 57 per cent are held back from having further kids ‘because of the risk of financial insecurity’.