Carer's leave UK: the employer guide to unpaid carer's leave

Carer's leave was introduced by the Carer's Leave Act 2023 and came into effect on 6 April 2024. It gives every employee, from their first day, a right to take time off to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need. The statutory right is unpaid.

It is meant for planned caring, such as taking someone to a hospital appointment, arranging residential care, or covering while a regular carer is away. Genuine emergencies, such as a sudden breakdown in care, fall under the separate right to time off for dependants.

A dependant is the employee's spouse or civil partner, child, parent, someone who lives in the same household (other than as a tenant, lodger or employee), or anyone who reasonably relies on the employee for care. They do not have to be a family member.

The dependant must have a long-term care need, which means one of the following.

Employees can take up to one week of carer's leave in any 12-month period. A week means the time the employee usually works over 7 days, so someone working three days a week gets three days. The week is a total per employee, not per dependant: caring for two relatives does not double it.

The leave can be taken as half days, full days or a whole week, either in one go or spread through the year. The 12 months are a rolling period counted back from the date of the leave requested, not a fixed holiday year. Where hours vary, Acas suggests averaging the hours worked over the previous 12 months (or the weeks worked so far, for a newer starter).

The employee must give notice of at least twice the length of the leave, or 3 days if longer. Notice is counted in full days. It does not have to be in writing, and the employee does not have to explain the care need in detail or give evidence of it.

No. An employer cannot refuse carer's leave. It can postpone it only where the employee's absence would cause serious disruption to the organisation. In that case the employer must allow the leave on another date within one month of the dates first requested, and explain the reason in writing within 7 days of the employee's notice.

Employees keep their employment rights during carer's leave, including holiday accrual and the right to return to their job. Dismissing someone, or treating them unfavourably, because they took or asked for carer's leave is not allowed and a dismissal may be unfair dismissal.

The two rights often get mixed up because both are unpaid and both concern dependants. Recording them separately keeps balances correct and avoids an employee losing their carer's leave week on an emergency.