What time off you’re entitled to after a bereavement, and what’s down to your employer

Losing someone matters more than any policy document. What follows is about the practical question sitting alongside that: what you’re actually owed in time off, and what’s genuinely up to your employer’s discretion.

The one clear statutory right: Parental Bereavement Leave

Two weeks off is what you’re entitled to if your child dies, or is stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy. This is often called Jack’s Law. It’s a day-one right, no length of service needed, and it applies if your child was under 18.

You can take the 2 weeks together or split into two separate weeks, at different times if you need to, any time within 56 weeks of the death. You have to take it in full weeks, not odd days.

There’s pay alongside the leave too, Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay, worth £194.32 a week from 6 April 2026 or 90% of your average weekly earningsThe average amount you earn per week, usually calculated over a reference period before your absence started. It's used to work out how much Statutory Sick Pay, maternity pay, or other statutory payme... if that’s lower, provided you’ve worked for your employer for at least 26 weeks and earn above the lower earnings limitThe minimum weekly earnings threshold that used to decide whether you qualified for Statutory Sick Pay at all. It was removed from 6 April 2026, so your earnings no longer affect whether you qualify, .... This rate rises every April alongside statutory maternity and paternity pay, so check gov.uk for the current figure if you’re reading this after an April update. Miss that service requirement and the leave itself is still yours, the pay just isn’t.

For the wider paternity and family leave changes taking effect the same month, see our guide to paternity leave and pay.

For everyone else: time off for dependants

Outside parental bereavement, there’s no general statutory right to paid bereavement leave for a partner, parent, sibling, or anyone else. What does exist is called time off for dependantsTime off for dependants is the legal right under section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 to take reasonable, unpaid time off work to deal with an emergency involving a dependant, such as a sudde..., under section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996The primary piece of legislation setting out employees rights in the UK, including the right not to be unfairly dismissed, the right to a written statement of employment particulars, and rights relati....

This gives you the right to reasonable, unpaid time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependantSomeone the law recognises you may need emergency time off for. It includes a spouse, civil partner, child, grandchild, parent, step-parent, or sibling, as well as anyone who reasonably relies on you ..., and death is one of the situations this covers. But it’s narrower than it sounds in two ways. It’s meant for practical, immediate matters, like arranging a funeral or dealing with the immediate crisis, not for the wider period of grieving. And tribunals have generally treated “reasonable” as a day or two, not a week or more.

Who counts as a dependant here is wider than people assume. It covers a spouse, civil partner, child, grandchild, parent, step-parent, or sibling, plus anyone who reasonably depends on you for care or for making care arrangements. Adult siblings are covered on the same basis as any other sibling, the law doesn’t draw a line at 18.

What this means in practice

For almost everyone outside parental bereavement, whatever additional time you get beyond the day or two covered by the dependants right comes from your employer’s own bereavement or compassionate leave policy, not the law. Many employers are considerably more generous than the legal minimum, some offer a week or more as standard, but there’s no legal floor forcing them to be.

Worth checking your contract or staff handbook for a bereavement or compassionate leave policy before assuming the statutory minimum is all you’ll get. If nothing is written down, it’s still worth asking directly. Many employers will use discretion even without a formal policy, especially for a first request.

What this means for your situation

If this is about the death of your child, the 2-week statutory right applies regardless of what your employer’s policy says, and it’s separate from any additional compassionate leave they choose to offer on top. If your partner or your child’s other parent has died, check whether Bereaved Partner’s Paternity Leave applies before assuming you’re only covered by the narrower dependants right. For any other loss, check what your employer’s own policy actually says first, since that’s very likely to matter more than the narrow statutory minimum.