When a child dies or a pregnancy ends, the employment leave and pay questions are separate from social-security bereavement benefits. This guide explains Parental Bereavement Leave and Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP), including who to contact, how the two-week leave can be arranged and why the rules differ across the UK. The Bereavement Support Payment guide covers the separate benefit for some people whose partner has died.
First identify the UK nation and the date
The standard GOV.UK route covers England, Scotland and Wales. It generally applies when a child under 18 dies or a baby is stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy. In Northern Ireland, events on or after 6 April 2026 also include qualifying miscarriages before 24 weeks; the date when the miscarriage occurred or was discovered matters. Northern Ireland also has different eligibility and pay rules for those later events. Use the relevant nidirect page if you work in Northern Ireland, and do not apply the GB 26-week service test automatically.
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| Where the employee works / event date | Situations covered by the published route | Key eligibility difference |
|---|---|---|
| England, Scotland or Wales | Death of a child under 18; stillbirth after 24 weeks | Leave can be available from the first day of employment. SPBP normally needs 26 weeks’ continuous service and average weekly earnings of at least £129 for 2026/27. |
| Northern Ireland, event before 6 April 2026 | Death of a child under 18; stillbirth after 24 weeks | Use the earlier NI rules and date-specific guidance; miscarriage is not within this extension. |
| Northern Ireland, qualifying event on or after 6 April 2026 | Child death, stillbirth after 24 weeks, and qualifying miscarriage before 24 weeks | Miscarriage-related rights are extended, and NI eligibility/pay rules differ from the standard GB test. The current NI guidance says SPBP is available from the first day of employment, with an earnings assessment that can use a reasonable estimate where a normal pay history is unavailable. |
“A week” means the employee’s normal working week. These rights are employment rights; they are not a decision about bereavement benefits, immigration status, or another household payment.
Leave and pay are separate rights
Eligible employees may take up to two weeks of Parental Bereavement Leave for each child. They can take both weeks together, take two separate one-week blocks, or use only one week. Leave can start on or after the qualifying event and must finish within 56 weeks. A partner may have a separate entitlement if they meet the relationship and employee conditions.
Leave does not always mean paid leave. In England, Scotland and Wales, an employee can qualify for leave without satisfying the extra service and earnings conditions for SPBP. An employer may offer enhanced contractual leave or pay, but that does not replace the statutory tests. The employee’s rights such as accruing holiday, pay rises and return to work are protected during statutory leave.
For a child death or stillbirth under the standard GB rules, an employee generally must be the child’s parent or the parent’s partner, or have had the qualifying day-to-day responsibility described in GOV.UK guidance. Adoption, surrogacy and some care arrangements have specific rules. A relationship alone does not establish eligibility, and the employer should check the official route rather than infer it from a job title or family label.
The day-to-day-responsibility route is narrow: the child generally must have lived with the employee or their partner at home for four continuous weeks ending on the date of death, and the employee or partner must have been responsible for the child's day-to-day care. Some paid care arrangements are excluded, with stated exceptions such as qualifying foster care, reimbursement of care expenses, or payments under a will or trust. The route also has a household restriction where a parent or another person with parental responsibility lived there. These details matter because someone may have played a close caring role without meeting the statutory definition.
Adoption and surrogacy also use specific legal milestones. The rules can cover an adoptive placement before an adoption order if the placement has not been disrupted or stopped. A parent through surrogacy may qualify after a parental order, or before it where the statutory application/intention conditions are met. International adoption has a separate official-notification condition. Where a family is relying on one of these routes, ask the employer to identify the exact GOV.UK criterion it applied and use the official eligibility page; this guide does not decide the status of an adoption or parental order.
The additional GB pay test
To receive SPBP under the standard England, Scotland and Wales rules, the employee generally must have worked continuously for the employer for at least 26 weeks up to the end of the relevant week. The relevant week ends on the Saturday immediately before the week of the death or stillbirth. The employee must also remain employed by that employer up to the date of the event, meet the average-earnings threshold, and provide the required notice and information.
For 2026/27, the published weekly rate is £194.32 or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. It is paid through payroll and is subject to tax and National Insurance deductions. The £129 earnings threshold is an eligibility test, not a promise that the weekly payment will equal £194.32. Northern Ireland’s post-6 April 2026 process uses its own rules and reasonable-estimate approach where a full earnings history is unavailable.
The GB threshold is based on average earnings in the statutory relevant period, not simply the latest payslip or annual salary divided by 52. The relevant week ends on the Saturday before the week of the event; the relevant period is usually the eight weeks leading up to that relevant week. The exact period and calculation can vary with the employee's normal pay pattern. HMRC's employer instructions explain how to treat weekly, monthly, irregular and mistimed pay. If the employee has variable hours, recently started, or received a backdated pay adjustment, payroll should show the actual dates and earnings used. Do not use this GB calculation to decide a post-6 April 2026 Northern Ireland claim: its official guidance describes an eight-week assessment that may combine normal or expected earnings and a reasonable estimate.
How to give notice and claim
For leave in the first eight weeks after the event, the standard route lets the employee notify the employer before they would normally start work on the first day of the leave week. For leave starting from week nine through week 56, at least one week’s notice is required. The notice should give the event date, the requested start date and whether one or two weeks are being taken. Under the GOV.UK route, notice for leave can be given informally, including by phone, text or email, and proof of death or stillbirth is not required for the leave notice.
SPBP has its own request: the employee should ask the employer within 28 days of the first day of the week for which they are claiming pay. For each claimed period, they provide their name, the pay-period dates and the event date in writing, and complete a relationship declaration once when first asking for pay. Keep a copy of the request and the employer’s response. Northern Ireland miscarriage claims have specific privacy protections in nidirect guidance; employees should not be asked to provide miscarriage details or medical evidence as a condition of the right.
The leave notice and pay request should not be treated as one formality: leave can be notified informally, while the pay request must contain the information required for payroll. The pay period is one or two complete weeks, although an employer can split payment across normal payroll dates. If plans change, GOV.UK explains when leave or pay can be cancelled and when it can be rebooked. For later leave, the one-week notice rule applies to both the planned leave and any cancellation; early leave has a different cutoff. Check the applicable dates before cancelling so a change does not accidentally remove an available week.
If the employee is taking another type of statutory leave when the event occurs, the bereavement leave generally starts after that leave has ended. If it is interrupted by another statutory leave, remaining entitlement may be taken later, subject to the 56-week limit. The interaction can be date-sensitive, so confirm the planned sequence with the employer before relying on a pay date.
If payroll says no or pays a different amount
Ask the employer to identify which right it assessed: leave, SPBP, or both. For SPBP, request the relevant-week dates, continuous-service record, average-earnings calculation, pay period and the reason for any refusal. A new or irregularly paid employee should ask how the relevant national rules apply rather than relying only on a headline annual salary. Keep notices, payslips and payroll correspondence together.
An employer may be able to reclaim some statutory payments from HMRC, but that is an employer payroll-recovery process; it does not decide the employee’s entitlement. If the employer will not pay, use the current GOV.UK or nidirect guidance and the official HMRC statutory-pay contact route. The amount and route should be checked again for the relevant pay week, especially after a tax-year change.
A practical checklist
- Record the event date and nation of employment. For Northern Ireland, check whether the event falls before or on/after 6 April 2026; for miscarriage, the discovery/awareness date may control.
- Check leave and pay separately. Confirm employee status and relationship route for leave, then separately check the relevant-week/service/earnings test for GB pay or the NI-specific pay route.
- Choose the leave blocks. Decide whether to request one week, two consecutive weeks or two separate weeks, and keep every requested week within the 56-week period.
- Give leave notice and request pay in the right form. Use the notice window for the planned dates; send each pay-period request and the one-time relationship declaration separately where required.
- Keep the employer's calculation and payslips. Ask payroll for the relevant period and earnings included. If the amount or refusal differs from the official rules, request an explanation in writing and check the current country-specific government guidance.
FAQs
How many weeks of Parental Bereavement Leave can I take?
Do I need 26 weeks of service to take the leave?
How much is Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay in 2026/27?
Does the UK scheme cover miscarriage?
Can my partner take leave too?
Do I have to provide proof of the death or miscarriage?
When must I tell my employer?
Can I take the leave after maternity, paternity or shared parental leave?
Is this the same as Bereavement Support Payment?
What should I do if my employer refuses the pay?
For a partner’s death and a different claim route, see the Bereavement Support Payment guide. For maternity, paternity and shared-parental statutory payments, see the Maternity and Paternity Pay guide.
Official sources
- GOV.UK — Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay and Leave
- GOV.UK — What you are entitled to
- GOV.UK — Check if you are eligible
- GOV.UK — How to claim
- GOV.UK — Employer eligibility guidance
- GOV.UK — Manually calculate Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay
- GOV.UK — Cancelling leave or pay
- GOV.UK — Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
- nidirect — Bereavements on or after 6 April 2026
- nidirect — Bereavements before 6 April 2026