Bereavement leave and pay: your rights

When someone close to you dies, time away from work to grieve and arrange the funeral matters. The law on bereavement leave is changing, and at the moment what you can get depends on your relationship to the person and your employer’s own policy. This guide sets out your current rights, what is coming in 2027, and the financial help available if your partner has died.

Key points

• Time off for dependants: employees can take reasonable unpaid time off to deal with the death of a dependant, including arranging and attending the funeral.
• Compassionate leave (paid or unpaid) is up to your employer. There’s no general legal right to paid bereavement leave.
• Parental Bereavement Leave: 2 weeks if your child dies under 18 or is stillborn after 24 weeks. Eligible parents get Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay of £194.32 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
• From April 2027 (Great Britain): a new day-one right to up to two weeks’ unpaid bereavement leave after the death of a close family member, or a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks.
• Bereavement Support Payment: up to £3,500 plus 18 monthly payments of £350 if your husband, wife, civil partner or (in some cases) cohabiting partner died. It is not means-tested.

Your rights at a glance

Time off for dependants

All employees, however long they’ve worked for their employer, have the right to reasonable time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant. This includes taking necessary action after a dependant dies, such as making funeral arrangements and attending the funeral.

• A dependant includes your spouse or civil partner, child or parent, someone who lives in your household (other than a tenant, lodger, boarder or employee), or someone who reasonably relies on you for care.
• There’s no set number of days. It must be reasonable in the circumstances.
• Your employer doesn’t have to pay you, but they must not refuse reasonable time off or treat you unfairly for taking it.
• Tell your employer as soon as you can. You don’t need to put it in writing.

This right covers practical arrangements, not time to grieve. That’s where compassionate leave comes in.

Compassionate leave

Many employers offer compassionate or bereavement leave, often paid, and sometimes for wider family and close friends. Check your contract, staff handbook or intranet, or ask HR. If there is no policy, you might agree to take annual leave or unpaid leave. If grief is affecting your health, you can take sick leave and get a fit note from your GP if you’re off for more than 7 days.

Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay

Often known as Jack’s Law, this applies if your child dies before they turn 18, or you have a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. It covers biological and adoptive parents, parents through surrogacy, a parent’s partner, and in some cases people with day-to-day responsibility for the child, such as foster parents and kinship carers.

Leave

• 2 weeks, taken as one block of 2 weeks, two separate weeks, or just one week. A “week” means your usual number of working days.
• It can be taken any time within 56 weeks of the death or stillbirth.
• It’s a day-one right for employees, with no minimum length of service.
• In the first 8 weeks, tell your employer before you would normally start work on the first day of leave. After that, give a week’s notice. You don’t need to prove the death.

Pay (England, Scotland and Wales)

• £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
• You need 26 weeks’ continuous employment by the end of the week before the death, and average earnings of at least £129 a week.
• Ask for it in writing within 28 days of the start of the week you want to claim for.

Northern Ireland differences (bereavements from 6 April 2026)

• Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay also covers miscarriage before 24 weeks, for the person who miscarried and certain partners.
• Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay is a day-one right. The 26-week service requirement no longer applies, although earnings conditions still do.

After a stillbirth, you may also be entitled to maternity or paternity leave and pay. See funeral for a baby or child for help with costs, including the Children’s Funeral Fund in England.

New bereavement leave from April 2027 (Great Britain)

On 22 September 2026, the Government confirmed that a new right to bereavement leave will start in April 2027 for employees in England, Scotland and Wales. Under its response to the consultation:

• It will cover the death of a spouse or partner, parent, adult child or sibling, including step, half, adoptive, kinship care and foster relationships.
• It will also cover pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, including miscarriage, termination and unsuccessful IVF embryo transfer, for the person who was pregnant, their partner, the other biological parent and intended parents through surrogacy.
• It will give up to two weeks of leave, based on your usual working pattern, which can be taken in single days within 56 weeks.
• The leave will be unpaid. It will be a day-one right, with no evidence needed.

The details will be set out in regulations, so check GOV.UK nearer the time.

Bereavement Support Payment

If your husband, wife or civil partner died, you may get Bereavement Support Payment. This also applies if you lived together as if married and, at the time, you had Child Benefit for a child living with you or were pregnant. To qualify, you must have been under State Pension age, and your partner must have paid enough National Insurance contributions or died because of an accident at work or an industrial disease.

• Claim within 3 months of the death to get the full amount. Claim within 12 months for the one-off payment, and usually within 21 months at the latest for any payments.
• It’s not means-tested and doesn’t affect your benefits for a year after the first payment.
• Claim online, by phone through the DWP Bereavement Service (0800 151 2012) or by post using form BSP1. In Northern Ireland, claim through the Department for Communities Bereavement Service.

Talking to your employer

• Let your manager or HR know as soon as you can, even by text or voicemail.
• Ask what compassionate leave the company offers and whether it’s paid.
• If you need a phased return or flexible hours, ask. Many employers will agree.
• For advice on your rights, contact Acas on 0300 123 1100.

Next steps

• Help paying for a funeral and our help with funeral costs checker
• Coping with grief and bereavement support
• Tell Us Once, which also triggers DWP and HMRC contact
• Back to what to do when someone dies