UK Bereavement Leave: What Employees Are Entitled To in 2026

UK bereavement leave is one of the most patchwork areas of employment law. There’s no single statutory right to paid time off when a close relative dies - instead, there’s a tangle of overlapping rights that depend on who died, how, and when.

The picture is also shifting fast. New rights came in on 6 April 2026, and bigger changes are expected in 2027. Here’s where things stand right now (May 2026) and what employers should be planning for.

The four rights that exist today

1. Time off for dependants

Every employee has a day-one right to a “reasonable” amount of unpaid time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant - and that includes a death. A dependant is broadly defined: spouse or civil partner, partner, parent, child, anyone living in the household, or anyone who reasonably relies on the employee.

In practice this covers the immediate practical tasks after a death - registering the death, arranging the funeral, dealing with affairs. It’s not designed to cover the time someone needs to grieve. There’s no statutory minimum number of days, and there’s no statutory pay.

2. Parental bereavement leave (Jack’s Law)

If an employee’s child under the age of 18 dies, or they suffer a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, they’re entitled to two weeks of statutory parental bereavement leave. It’s a day-one right, available to biological parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, legal guardians, and the partners of any of these.

The leave can be taken as one two-week block or two separate weeks, and must be taken within 56 weeks of the death.

3. Statutory parental bereavement pay

Eligible employees can be paid for that two weeks at £194.32 per week (from 6 April 2026) or 90% of their average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. The pay has a 26-week service requirement and a minimum earnings threshold.

4. Bereaved partner’s paternity leave (new from April 2026)

This one is brand new. From 6 April 2026, where a parent dies during or shortly after the arrival of their child, the surviving partner can take up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave in the child’s first year. It’s a day-one right.

This closes a gap that left bereaved partners juggling much shorter paternity entitlements at the worst possible moment.

What’s still missing - and what’s coming

For most adult bereavements - losing a parent, a sibling, a spouse, a long-term friend - there’s still no statutory right to paid leave. Employees have to fall back on the “time off for dependants” rule (unpaid, brief) or rely on their employer’s contractual policy.

That’s expected to change. The Employment Rights Bill received Royal Assent in 2025, and the government has signalled secondary legislation in 2027 will introduce:

• A general right to one week’s bereavement leave following the death of a “loved one” - day-one, unpaid. The exact definition of “loved one” is still being consulted on.
• Bereavement leave for pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, including miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and unsuccessful IVF embryo transfer. This will be the first time UK law has formally recognised early pregnancy loss as a bereavement.

Neither right is in force yet, and the regulations haven’t been finalised. But it’s a good time for employers to start thinking about how their policies will line up.

What good employers do beyond the statutory minimum

The legal floor is low. Most decent UK employers already offer something more generous in their contracts. Common patterns:

• Three to five days of paid leave for the death of an immediate family member (spouse, partner, parent, child, sibling).
• One or two days of paid leave for other close relatives or dependants.
• Flexibility on top - additional unpaid leave, the option to work from home, phased returns, or use of annual leave for longer absences.
• Clear policy on attending funerals, including for colleagues or extended relatives, so managers aren’t making it up case by case.

Two principles that separate a good policy from a tick-box one:

1. Don’t make people justify their grief. A bereavement policy that asks employees to “evidence” their relationship to the deceased - or to compete for paid days based on who exactly died - sends a brutal message. Default to trust.
2. Brief your managers. The first conversation an employee has after a death is usually with their direct manager. If that conversation goes badly, the policy doesn’t matter. Make sure managers know what to offer, what not to say, and where to escalate.

Putting it into practice

If you’re writing or updating a bereavement policy this year, three things to get right:

• Cover the statutory rights clearly - what’s a day-one right, what needs service, what’s paid, what’s unpaid. People shouldn’t have to Google their own entitlements.
• State your contractual top-up explicitly. If you offer five days’ paid bereavement leave for the death of a parent, say so. Vague “compassionate leave at the manager’s discretion” wording creates inequity.
• Plan for the 2027 changes now. A broader bereavement right is coming. Reviewing your policy in advance is much easier than retrofitting it under time pressure.

Deckchair lets you set up bereavement as a distinct leave type alongside annual leave and sick leave, so it’s tracked separately and reported on cleanly. Start a free 14-day trial - no credit card required.

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This article is general information, not legal advice. For specific situations, check the current Acas guidance on time off for bereavement or speak to a qualified employment lawyer.