International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research ... - SFI

GYET: The time period between the third and eighth birthday of the
youngest child in a family with three or more children. Flat-rate
payment (about €110/month in 2006). GYET is considered an
acknowledgement of parenthood as paid work.
Economists both in Hungary and other countries of Europe have been
warning that extended leave has an adverse effect on women returning to
paid work. The longer the period the mother stays home with the child,
the smaller the chance that she will be able to return to and re-integrate
into the developing labour market. For example, the OECD
recommendations for Hungary (OECD Economic Survey of Hungary,
2007), include the following in reference to leave:
• Possibilities for extended leave ought to be cut back to a maximum
length of 12 months);
• The savings should help fund increased support for childcare services;
• Increases should be made in the level of payments for Maternity leave;
• Increased Paternity leave should be introduced.
Sociologists, on the other hand, often talk about how benefits linked to
leave can alleviate poverty in low income families. Moreover, it is not
really known how the public – people with and without children – think,
what they consider best. That is, is it better to have long periods of leave
available or to have a comprehensive system of centres and services for
young children that provide full-time care and education during the day,
while parents work.
Views on leave and childcare services
In order to find some answers and to reflect on the issue, I will refer to
some of the results of the research of the National Institute for Family and
Social Policy, which used data from the omnibus survey done by TARKI in
2005, to assess the views about childrearing of the most concerned age
groups of the population. This is a multi-purpose survey, undertaken at
regular intervals, based on interviews with a representative sample of
about 1,000 adults at each round. Since we targeted the 22 to 35 age
group, the data collection involved collating the results from several
omnibus surveys, undertaken over several months. The responses we
could use at the end came from 850 adults, between 22 and 35 years of
age; 42 per cent were not married, 53 per cent had no children, and 55
per cent planned to have, or have more, children. Some of the questions
were addressed only to parents with at least one child under the age of
three years.
The overall picture emerging from the responses indicates that the
respondents favoured the option of the mother staying at home with a
young child; think that nurseries are used mainly because the mother
needs to have a job in order to have enough income for the family; and
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