Bereavement Leave From Work: Your Rights, Explained

A quick note before you read on: UK bereavement leave law is more limited than most people assume, and finding that out while grieving can feel like a second blow. This lays out exactly where you stand, plainly.

The honest headline

Most people assume there's a general legal right to paid time off work after a bereavement. There isn't, except in one specific case. It's a genuinely surprising gap in UK law, and worth knowing clearly rather than discovering it from an unhelpful employer at the worst possible moment.

Jack's Law: the one statutory paid right

If your child dies before the age of 18, or you experience a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, you have a day-one statutory right to two weeks' parental bereavement leave — this applies from your very first day in a job, with no minimum service required. It's often called Jack's Law.

• The two weeks can be taken as one block, or as two separate weeks, any time within 56 weeks of the death
• It extends to adoptive parents, intended parents through surrogacy, and partners in an enduring family relationship with the child
• Pay is a separate entitlement: if you have at least 26 weeks' continuous service and earn at least £129 a week on average, you can receive statutory parental bereavement pay at the lower of £194.32 a week (from April 2026) or 90% of your average weekly earnings

This is currently the only UK bereavement situation with a specific statutory right to paid leave.

Everyone else: reasonable unpaid time off

For every other bereavement — a parent, partner, sibling, grandparent, adult child, or close friend — there is no statutory right to paid leave at all. What you do have, from day one of any job, is the right to reasonable unpaid time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant, including making funeral arrangements.

The law deliberately doesn't specify a number of days — ACAS confirms "reasonable" is not fixed, and depends on individual circumstances. In practice, many employers voluntarily offer 3–5 days of paid compassionate leave, but this is discretionary, set out in a contract or company policy, not a legal requirement.

If this feels unfair, you're not wrong to think so — it's a widely criticised gap, and campaigners continue to push for broader statutory bereavement leave. Wider reform is coming through the Employment Rights Act 2025, but the relevant provisions aren't yet in force; further regulations are expected around 2027.

If compassionate leave runs out but you still can't work

Grief itself isn't a diagnosis, and UK guidance to doctors is explicit that "bereavement" can't be written on a fit note as the reason. But the real, medical impact of grief can be, and GPs do this routinely — things like acute stress reaction, distress due to bereavement, anxiety, depression, or insomnia. Once that's the case, you've moved from compassionate leave into ordinary sickness absence, which works differently and carries its own entitlements.

For the first 7 days of any sickness absence, you can self-certify, no GP appointment needed. Past 7 days, you'll need a fit note from a GP or another authorised healthcare professional (nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists can also issue these).

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) changed significantly in April 2026: it's now paid from day one of sickness absence (the old 3 unpaid "waiting days" were scrapped), and the previous earnings threshold that excluded the lowest-paid workers has been removed entirely. The rate is currently the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of your average weekly earnings. Your employer may offer more generous contractual sick pay on top of this, worth checking your contract for.

This isn't a loophole or "swinging the lead." Grief that's genuinely affecting your ability to function, sleep, or concentrate is treated the same as any other health condition under UK employment law, and GPs are trained to support exactly this.

What to actually do

• Check your contract or staff handbook first — many employers offer more than the legal minimum, and it's worth knowing your actual entitlement before assuming the worst
• Ask directly and early, even if it feels hard in the moment — most reasonable employers will work with you, especially if you explain what you need and roughly for how long
• If your employer refuses reasonable time off, or treats your request unfairly compared to others, free advice is available from ACAS on 0300 123 1100
• Consider a phased return if you're able to — many workplaces will accommodate reduced hours or a gradual return, even without being legally obliged to

A word from The Care Compass

Finding out the legal protection is thinner than you'd hoped, on top of everything else, is genuinely unfair. Knowing exactly where you stand at least means you're not guessing, or accepting less than you're entitled to out of uncertainty.

You don’t have to navigate it alone.