Parental leave crackdown to hit low paid

Very low-paid women will be hit in the government's crackdown on paid parental leave "double dipping", in a move Labor has branded stupid.

Department of Social Services figures, given to a Senate inquiry, show some women earning $10,000 or less annually would lose a portion of their paid parental leave entitlements while others on as little as $20,000 a year would miss out on the government scheme altogether.

"It's a strange idea of fairness when you're going to say to parents on incomes as low as $10,000 a year you could be losing some of your paid parental leave," Labor's families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin told ABC Radio on Thursday.