30 Jan Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Changes
New entitlement to Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay
The government is introducing a new workplace right to Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay for parents who lose a child under the age of 18, including those who suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy.
The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act gained Royal Assent in September 2018. Work is underway to get the regulations ready to be laid before Parliament in 2019, with the intention that they will apply from the common commencement date of 6 April 2020.
During the Act’s passage through Parliament, the government consulted on several key aspects of the policy to be set in regulations. The government published its response to the consultation on 2 November 2018. Read the full response here.
Who will be entitled?
Employed parents who lose a child under the age of 18 (or those who suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks) will be entitled to two weeks of Parental Bereavement Leave as a ‘day-one’ right.
Those with at least 26 weeks continuous service at the date of the child’s death, and earnings above the Lower Earnings Limit, will also be entitled to Parental Bereavement Pay.
This is paid at the statutory flat weekly rate of £145.18 (or 90% of average earnings, where this is lower).
The definition of a ‘bereaved parent’ is guided by the principle that those who are the ‘primary carers’ of the child should be the focus of the entitlement. The entitlement will apply to the child’s ‘legal’ parents; individuals with a court order to give them day-to-day responsibility for caring for the child; and primary carers who do not have legal status, such as kinship carers.
In all cases, eligibility will be based on facts that will be clear to both the employee and their employer in order to minimise confusion.
How can the leave and pay be taken?
Eligible parents will be able to take both the leave and pay as either a single block of one or two weeks, or as two separate blocks of one week of leave and/or pay (taken at different times).
The employee will have 56 weeks from the date of their child’s death in which to take the entitlement so as to allow parents to take the leave (and pay) at important moments, such as anniversaries, if they wish to.
What notices will be required?
Leave
No prior notice will be required for leave taken very soon after the death. This will apply for a set number of weeks, in recognition that employees are likely to need to take leave at little or no notice. Employees will, however, be required to tell their employer that they are absent from work, informal notification will be acceptable. If leave is taken at a later point in time, a notice requirement will apply. The proposed notice period is at least one week.
Pay
Prior notice will be required for Parental Bereavement Pay irrespective of when the pay is taken. This is in order to give you as an employer time to process the request.
What will the evidence requirements be?
The government is considering whether employers should be able to request evidence of entitlement to Parental Bereavement Leave where an employee is required to give notice (i.e. where the leave is taken at a later date). Where they do, the government proposes that this should be in the form of a written declaration that the employee meets eligibility criteria for leave (this is the approach used for Paternity Leave and Pay).
For Parental Bereavement Pay, a written declaration will always be required from the employee in order to safeguard employers and the Exchequer from potential abuse, as is the case for other family related pay entitlements.
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