Three members of the University staff talk about parental allowance

Christine Deters (32), studied Sociology and Cultural and Social Anthropology and now works in the University's research centre for Family-Friendly HR Policies:. "Starting a family while you're still a student entails special challenges. This is what my husband and I discovered, because our two children were born during the time I was studying. In 2011 we confidently embarked on this for the first time and, as with most parents, there were a few questions to think about. Who is going to take parental leave when, and for how many months' As a student, am I entitled to parental allowance? What level of income do the various options produce? Apart from having enough time for the children and sufficient income, there was a further criterion: I didn't want to interrupt my studies. After a lot of thought and after getting some advice we decided to take 14 months' parental leave with the parental allowance. The way we split it up was that I stayed at home for the first three months, and my husband did so for the next eleven months.