Parental Bereavement Leave (PBL) is a type of employment leave for parents experiencing the horror of losing a child. Employees might also be entitled to receive Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay.

What is Parental Bereavement Leave (PBL)?

The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act, also known as Jack’s Law, provides a leave entitlement for parents suffering the death of a child under the age of 18, and beyond 24 weeks of pregnancy.

How long is Parental Bereavement Leave (PBL)?

Employees can request two weeks of Parental Bereavement Leave (PBL) from their employers. The two weeks can be taken continuously or as two separate weeks. The definition of a week is based on the number of days which your employee normally works in a week. For example, if they’re contracted to work three days each week, then a week for Parental Bereavement Leave would be 3 days.

It’s what is known as a day-one right, which means employees can request PBL regardless of how long they’ve worked for their employer. It starts from day one of the job, but it must finish within 56 weeks of the death or stillbirth.
 

What is Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay

Parental Bereavement Leave (PBL) only deals with the time off which parents are entitled to take, but whether or not they get paid anything during that two week period ‘depends’.

Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay, or SPBP, is only payable to staff with a minimum 26 weeks of continuous service with their employer. They must also be earning more than the Lower Earnings Limit for National Insurance (currently £6,396).

As an employer you might decide to extend the period of statutory pay or increase the amount at your own discretion, but you’ll only be able to reclaim the statutory maximum that an employee is entitled to. You can reclaim this by submitting an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) as part of your PAYE reporting. As unpleasant as it is to request, you’ll also need to ask your employee to provide you with proof.

Employees who don’t have at least 26 consecutive weeks of service aren’t entitled to SPBP, but they are still allowed to take the two weeks of Parental Bereavement Leave (PBL).

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