Two weeks of leave from your first day in a job, whatever your employer’s policy says. What you are entitled to, and what it pays.
Two weeks is the entitlement. You can take them together or as two separate single weeks, at any point in the 56 weeks after the loss.
Many employers pay bereavement leave at full pay, and a good many more will if asked. It is one of the more commonly enhanced entitlements.
| Weeks | Gross | After tax and NI |
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Statutory Parental Bereavement Leave — Jack’s Law — gives you two weeks off if a child dies under the age of 18, or in the case of a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy. It is a day-one right: your employer cannot refuse it, cannot ask you to justify it, and cannot require you to have worked there for any length of time first. If more than one child died, it is two weeks for each.
You can take the two weeks together or as two separate single weeks, and the entitlement stays open for 56 weeks from the date of the loss, so nothing has to be decided quickly. The pay is £194.32 a week, or 90% of your average weekly earnings if that is lower. Unlike the leave, the pay in England, Wales and Scotland still requires 26 weeks’ continuous employment and average weekly earnings of at least £129.
On 6 April 2026 Northern Ireland changed its rules in two ways, and it is the only part of the UK where either applies.
First, the scheme was extended to miscarriage and pregnancy loss before 24 weeks — the first jurisdiction on these islands to do it. Second, the 26-week qualifying period for the pay was abolished, so the pay became a day-one right alongside the leave. The £129 earnings test remains, and no medical evidence is required for any of it: a written self-declaration is enough, which was a deliberate choice to keep grieving families out of an evidence process.
The practical result is that the same loss, on the same date, gives an employee in Belfast a paid statutory entitlement and an employee in Cardiff or Glasgow nothing at all. In Great Britain the Employment Rights Act 2025 will eventually create a day-one right to at least one week’s unpaid bereavement leave covering earlier pregnancy loss, but the consultation only closed in January 2026 and the regulations are expected in 2027. Unpaid, it will still not match Northern Ireland.
Until then, a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks in Great Britain is normally handled as sickness absence — and that is a right, not a favour. Pregnancy-related sickness absence cannot lawfully be counted against you in an absence procedure, scored against you in a redundancy exercise, or used as a reason for dismissal.
This is the thing most worth being certain about, and the thing least often said plainly. If your baby was stillborn from the 24th week of pregnancy, you keep your full maternity entitlement — up to 52 weeks of leave and 39 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay if you meet the usual conditions, exactly as if your baby had been born alive. Your partner keeps their paternity leave and pay.
Bereavement leave is in addition to all of it, normally taken once the maternity or paternity leave has ended. And if your baby spent seven days or more in neonatal care before they died, up to 12 weeks of neonatal care leave may apply as well. None of these entitlements reduce each other.
You do not have to produce a death certificate or explain yourself. A short declaration — your name, the date, and that you meet the relationship condition — is what employers are entitled to ask for. Notice is minimal by design: in the first eight weeks you can start the leave the same day you tell them; after that, one week’s notice.
And it is worth asking your employer what they pay, even if you do not meet the statutory service test. Bereavement leave is among the entitlements most commonly paid in full regardless of the statutory floor, and very few employers refuse when asked directly. Whatever they pay, take the time as parental bereavement leave rather than as annual or compassionate leave: it carries statutory protection that a discretionary policy does not. Acas can advise free of charge if a request is refused.
Two weeks. You can take them as a single block of two, or as two separate single weeks at different times, or take just one week. The entitlement stays open for 56 weeks from the date of the death or stillbirth, so there is no need to decide anything quickly.
It is a day-one right. Your employer cannot refuse it, cannot ask you to justify it, and cannot require you to have worked there for any length of time first.
£194.32 a week, or 90% of your average weekly earnings if that is lower. It is the same flat rate as maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental pay. For most people the two weeks come to about £389 before tax.
The pay is a separate question from the leave. In England, Wales and Scotland it needs 26 weeks’ continuous employment with the same employer by the relevant week — the week ending on the Saturday before the week of the loss — plus average weekly earnings of at least £129. Northern Ireland no longer has the 26-week test at all.
Two things changed on 6 April 2026, and together they make Northern Ireland the most generous part of the UK on this:
No medical evidence is required in either case — a written self-declaration is enough, which was a deliberate decision to avoid putting grieving families through an evidence process.
In Northern Ireland, yes, since 6 April 2026 — two weeks of leave and pay on the same terms as any other loss covered by the scheme.
In England, Wales and Scotland, not at present. The statutory scheme starts at 24 weeks. The Employment Rights Act 2025 will create a day-one right to at least one week’s unpaid bereavement leave covering earlier pregnancy loss; the consultation closed in January 2026 and the regulations are expected in 2027. Being unpaid, it will still fall short of the Northern Irish position.
In the meantime this is normally handled as sickness absence, and that is a right rather than a favour. Pregnancy-related sickness absence cannot lawfully be counted against you in an absence procedure, scored against you in a redundancy exercise, or given as a reason for dismissal. A growing number of employers also have a specific pregnancy-loss policy, so it is worth asking whether yours does.
No. If your baby was stillborn from the 24th week of pregnancy, you keep your full maternity entitlement — up to 52 weeks of leave and 39 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay if you meet the usual conditions, exactly as if your baby had been born alive. Your partner keeps their paternity leave and pay in the same way.
Parental bereavement leave is in addition to all of that, and is normally taken once the maternity or paternity leave has finished. This is one of the most commonly misunderstood parts of the system, and worth being certain about before you make any decisions about returning to work.
Potentially quite a lot, and all of it stacks. If your baby spent seven full continuous days or more in neonatal care, you may be entitled to up to 12 weeks of neonatal care leave and pay — one week for every seven days — which is separate from everything else. Maternity and paternity leave continue unaffected. Parental bereavement leave sits on top of all of it.
None of these reduce each other. They are separate entitlements that happen to apply to the same situation.
Yes. Each parent has their own entitlement, assessed independently, including where both work for the same employer. There is no single pot to share and no need to choose between you.
The definition of parent is broad: birth parents, adoptive parents and parents of a child placed for adoption, intended parents under a surrogacy arrangement, the partner of the child’s parent where there was an enduring family relationship with the child, and anyone who had day-to-day responsibility for the child for at least four weeks before the death.
The entitlement is two weeks for each child. If two children died, that is four weeks of leave, and four weeks of pay if you qualify for it.
No. You do not have to produce a death certificate, provide medical evidence, or give your employer a reason. In practice you give a short declaration confirming you are entitled — your name, the date of the death or stillbirth, and that you meet the relationship condition. Northern Ireland made the written self-declaration explicit in its 2026 regulations for exactly this reason.
Very little, deliberately. In the first eight weeks after the death or stillbirth, telling your employer before you would normally have started work that day is enough — you can start the leave the same day you tell them. After the first eight weeks, one week’s notice is required.
You can also cancel or move the leave, subject to the same notice, if you find that a week you had booked is not the week you need.
Yes. It counts as earnings, so income tax, National Insurance and any pension contributions come off it as they would from salary. In practice the amounts are small enough that a two-week block rarely changes much, and because PAYE works across the whole tax year any excess tax deducted usually corrects itself through payroll.
The leave is a statutory right, so it does not depend on your employer having a written policy. Both GOV.UK and Acas publish guidance aimed at employers in exactly that position, and it is reasonable to send them a link.
Two practical points. Bereavement leave is one of the entitlements employers most commonly pay in full regardless of the statutory minimum, so it is worth asking even if you do not meet the 26-week test. And take the time as parental bereavement leave rather than as annual or compassionate leave even where the money is identical — it carries statutory protection, it cannot be counted against you in an absence procedure, and it is unlawful to treat you badly for taking it.
All free, and all independent of any employer:
After a stillbirth you keep your full maternity entitlement. See what the 52 weeks of leave and 39 weeks of pay are worth.
