My parent died: how much compassionate leave, and is it paid?

Your parent has died, and you still have to tell work whether you will be in. If you are an employee, the law gives you reasonable time to deal with the death. It does not normally replace the wages. Tell your employer what has happened, then check whether your workplace pays compassionate leave.

What to do today

You do not have to wait for a death certificate before notifying work. A call is enough for the statutory right, but a saved message gives you a record.

1. Tell your employer as soon as you can. For example: “My mother has died. Please record today and tomorrow as time off for dependants to arrange her funeral. Expected return is Thursday. The funeral date is not yet confirmed. Please confirm whether our compassionate leave policy pays for these days.” Change the details to fit. If you are on shift in a care home, tell the person in charge so they can arrange a safe handover.
2. Check the contract and handbook. Look for compassionate leave, bereavement leave or special leave. Check the days, pay, covered relatives and any procedure for contractual benefits. A discretionary policy is not the same as a contractual promise.
3. Explain the time you need. List the register office appointment, funeral arrangements, ceremony and necessary travel. Update work when the dates or your expected return change. You do not need to describe your grief to justify the funeral.
4. Ask your union for help if work pushes back. UNISON is an option for health and care staff; Unite and GMB organise in sectors including hospitality and cleaning. If you do not have a rep, use our union guide or contact Acas or Citizens Advice.

Section 57A(2) requires you to give the reason as soon as reasonably practicable and say how long you expect to be absent. The exception to giving the expected duration applies where you could not notify the employer of the reason until after returning to work. If you cannot make contact immediately, explain why when you can.

How much time the law gives you

“Compassionate leave” is usually a workplace policy name. In England, Wales and Scotland, the statutory right is time off for dependants under section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It covers a reasonable amount of time during your working hours to take necessary action following a dependant’s death. It applies during probation too.

There is no automatic allowance of three days, five days or a week. Nor does the law set a maximum. What matters is what you need to do and how long that reasonably takes. Arranging the funeral and attending it can mean separate absences. GOV.UK confirms there is no limit on the number of occasions you can use the right.

Northern Ireland’s guidance suggests one or two days for most dependant emergencies. That is not a legal cap on time after a death. If the funeral is overseas, explain the journey and arrangements, and try to agree the necessary absence in writing. Do not assume either that two days is all you get or that an extended stay is automatically protected.

The right covers necessary action, not a general period away from work to grieve. If grief makes you too unwell to work, the next conversation is about sickness absence, not about finding more funeral paperwork to justify your days off.

Who counts when a parent dies

Your parent counts even if you lived apart and they did not rely on you for care. The death provision in section 57A(3) covers your spouse or civil partner, child, parent and certain people sharing your household.

General guidance sometimes describes a dependant as anyone who reasonably relies on you. In the statute, that extension applies to specified illness and care situations, not the death provision. A workplace policy can be wider, including for step-parents, in-laws and close friends. Ask for its wording before accepting a refusal.

Is any of it paid?

There is no statutory pay attached to ordinary time off for dependants. Your employer may pay under your contract, a workplace policy or an agreement with you. Acas also flags exceptions for agricultural workers. If you work in agriculture, check the applicable arrangements with Acas or your union rather than assume the ordinary unpaid rule settles your entitlement.

Check whether a policy promises paid days or leaves the decision to a manager. If contractual pay is due and withheld, that may be an unlawful deduction from wages. A policy giving fewer days than you reasonably need cannot reduce your statutory time-off right.

You can request paid annual leave if you would rather use holiday than lose wages. But your employer cannot make using holiday a condition of taking statutory time off for dependants. Be clear which type of absence you are notifying or requesting, and ask how payroll will record it.

What unpaid leave costs on these wages

These are worked examples, not reports about real people. Both use £12.71 an hour, the National Living Wage from April 2026 for people aged 21 and over. The time needed after a death still depends on the circumstances; the examples do not set an allowance.

If you are agency, zero-hours, or called self-employed

Employees have this right from day one. Workers who are not employees and genuinely self-employed people do not have it. A zero-hours contract can still be an employment contract. If an agency employs you, notify the agency and tell the workplace where you are due on shift.

Your legal employment status depends on the working relationship. A contract’s label does not settle it. If status is disputed, save the contract, rotas and messages and ask your union or an adviser to assess it. A lack of statutory entitlement does not stop you asking for compassionate leave under a policy.

If you need longer than the funeral

If grief makes you too unwell to work, tell your employer you are taking sick leave and follow the sickness reporting procedure. Since 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay is payable from the first full day of sickness you would normally work, subject to eligibility. It is £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, with no lower earnings threshold. Your contract may give better sick pay. See our SSP guide.

For more time when you are not ill, ask about additional compassionate leave, paid holiday or agreed unpaid leave. For a longer-term change, employees have a day-one right to request flexible working. It is a right to ask, not an automatic right to the hours you want.

Explain any religious funeral or mourning requirements. Acas warns that refusing a religious ceremony after a death could be religion or belief discrimination. That does not create a fixed number of extra days for every religious observance. It means the employer must consider the request without unlawful discrimination. See our religious observance guide.

If they refuse, cut your shifts, or sack you

An employer can dispute whether the length of an absence is reasonable. But short staffing does not cancel an employee’s right to necessary time off after a parent’s death. A death certificate is not a condition in section 57A. A separate policy for paid compassionate leave may have its own procedure; ask the employer to distinguish that from the statutory right.

In Great Britain, unreasonable refusal can lead to a complaint under section 57B, with a declaration and compensation the tribunal considers just and equitable. Punishment for taking or seeking the time off can be unlawful detriment under section 47C. Dismissal for that reason can be automatically unfair under section 99. You do not need two years’ service for that protection.

1. Keep the refusal and the rota. Save your notification, the response, the dates you needed and any later warnings or lost shifts. Explain what you needed to do during the absence.
2. Ask for the decision in writing. State that you are using statutory time off for dependants, and ask why the employer says it is not covered or is too long.
3. Involve your rep and raise a grievance. Use the grievance procedure if appropriate, but do not wait for it to finish before protecting a tribunal deadline.
4. Notify Acas promptly if you may claim. The usual Great Britain limit for these claims concerning events on or after 1 October 2026 is six months minus one day. For events before that date, the usual limit remains three months minus one day. Timely notification for early conciliation pauses the clock. Use the time-limits guide and get advice about your exact deadline.

Acas gives the example of a problem on 1 October 2026 having a basic deadline of 31 March 2027, before any early conciliation adjustment. Do not use a grievance, an appeal or a promise from a manager as a reason to let the deadline pass.

Speak to your union, Acas, Citizens Advice or a law centre. Ask for advice before resigning. If your immigration permission is tied to the job, tell the adviser that at the start.

The planned April 2027 right is not available yet

The Employment Rights Act 2025 provides for a broader bereavement leave entitlement in Great Britain. As at 1 October 2026, it is not a right you can take. Regulations are needed to bring it into operation.

The response allows leave in separate single days within 56 weeks of the death or learning of it, without evidence of the bereavement. Its planned notice rule is before work starts, or as soon as reasonably possible afterwards, during the first eight weeks; after that, one week’s notice. These are future arrangements, not conditions for today’s dependants’ leave.

Unpaid leave still has a price. On the examples above, two normal working weeks would mean £953.25 in lost gross wages for Marcus and £406.72 for Amina, unless their employer paid. The planned right would give protected time to grieve, but not statutory wages for that time.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The section 57A right described here applies in England, Wales and Scotland. There is no separate Scottish allowance of bereavement days. The Great Britain tribunal deadline rules above apply to dependants’ leave claims in Scotland too. Acas identifies a later change for Scottish employment tribunal breach-of-contract claims, on 9 November 2026; that is not the deadline rule for a section 57A refusal.

Northern Ireland has its own equivalent right to reasonable unpaid time off for dependants, without a qualifying service period. Its guidance also says notification need not be written and no evidence is required. Enforcement is through the industrial tribunal system, not Acas. Get local advice through the Labour Relations Agency and do not use the Great Britain deadline above. The 2025 Act’s broader bereavement leave reform does not itself create a Northern Ireland entitlement. See employment law in Northern Ireland.