Insights overview

Parental Bereavement Leave: Jack’s Law guidance published

Heralded by the government as “the most generous offer on parental bereavement pay and leave in the word”, parental bereavement leave is a new statutory entitlement for bereaved parents to be absent from work, normally with pay at a statutory minimum rate, for up to two weeks. It is known as ‘Jack’s Law’ in memory of Jack Herd, whose mother campaigned for the right to parental bereavement leave. It is available to those with parental responsibility for a child under the age of 18 who dies on or after 6 April 2020. This includes not only birth parents, but also the partner of the child’s parent and adoptive parents. In addition, it is available to parents who suffer a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Parents will be able to take the leave as either a single block of 2 weeks, or as 2 separate blocks of one week each taken at different times across the first year after their child’s death. This means they can match their leave to the times they need it most, which could be in the early days or over the first anniversary.

The key eligibility criteria are that the employee must have:

at least 26 weeks’ continuous employment by the week before the week in which their child passes away; and
normal weekly earnings in the eight weeks up to the week before the child’s death of no less than the lower earnings limit for national insurance contribution purposes.

The bereaved parent must give the employer:

notice of the weeks during which they wish to claim statutory parental bereavement pay; and
evidence of entitlement to statutory parental bereavement pay, which requires the employee to provide some basic information and a declaration that they have a qualifying relationship with the child.

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Many employees may not be aware of their employers’ policies for supporting staff if their child died. Due to this new statutory right, employers should review and update their policies and ensure their employees are aware of them. Employers should consider the interaction between parental bereavement leave and any company compassionate leave.

We have updated our service offering to include a new parental bereavement leave policy. Please contact us should you wish to discuss either parental bereavement leave or any other aspect of our service offering.