The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced the introduction of the Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Regulations, which will take effect on 6 April 2020, if approved by Parliament. The Regulations will allow parents who have lost a child either under 18 years or from 24 weeks of pregnancy to receive two weeks’ bereavement leave.
The right will apply to all parents irrespective of how long they have worked for their employer. Parents will be able to take the leave as either a single block of two weeks or as two separate blocks of one week to be taken across the first year after the child’s death.
Those parents who have been employed for longer than six months will also receive pay during the bereavement leave period provided that their pay is above the lower earnings limit. Payment will be in line with the approach for other parental entitlements.
The Government has declared that these changes signify the most generous offer on parental bereavement pay and leave in the world; the UK being one of the very few countries worldwide to offer such bereavement support, and the first to offer a full two weeks’ leave.