HR glossary

Bereavement leave

Time off work after a death — a small, precise statutory core, with everything else decided by the employer's policy.

What is bereavement leave?

Bereavement leave is time off work after a death. UK law guarantees two specific rights: a reasonable, unpaid amount of time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant — including a dependant's death — and 2 weeks of Parental Bereavement Leave when an employee's child dies under 18 or is stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy. There is no general legal right to paid bereavement leave.

Parental Bereavement Leave is a day-one employee right: 2 weeks for each child, taken as a single week, 2 separate weeks or a fortnight, finishing within 56 weeks of the death. Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay is £194.32 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings if that is lower, for employees with 26 weeks' continuous service and average earnings of at least £129 a week; eligibility rules differ in Northern Ireland for bereavements on or after 6 April 2026.

For a dependant — a spouse, partner, child, grandchild, parent or someone who relies on the employee for care — time off for dependants applies from day one and does not have to be paid. For anyone else, such as a friend or a sibling who was not a dependant, there is no statutory right at all, which is why most employers close the gap with a written compassionate-leave policy: who it covers, how much leave, and what is paid.

Start with the rule

Write down the decision

Keep the policy, dates, calculation inputs and decision together so another person can understand what happened.

Check the current source

Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay is a tax-year rate — recheck the figure each April, and use current Acas guidance before deciding a sensitive case.

A practical checklist

For a small team, a short repeatable process beats an impressive policy nobody follows.

Separate the statutory core from the discretionary policy in writing
Allow reasonable time off from day one when a dependant dies
Apply Parental Bereavement Leave precisely — 2 weeks, within 56 weeks, pay if eligible
State who compassionate leave covers, how long it lasts and whether it is paid
Record the leave type and dates without collecting unnecessary detail about the death
Confirm decisions in writing and apply them consistently

Where software helps — and where it does not

HollyHR can keep the relevant people record, dates, documents, leave and working pattern in one place. It cannot decide a legal, medical or employee-relations question for you.

Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay is a tax-year rate — recheck the figure each April, and use current Acas guidance before deciding a sensitive case.