Unpaid carers come in a wide range of circumstances – siblings, parents, children caring for their parents, and care for other family members and friends.
Many people who work have to take time off at some point in the year for their caring responsibilities – but a new law means they don’t have to take annual leave to do so.
The Carers Leave Act 2024
Caring involves both planned and unplanned absences for carers from their main jobs. It might be an important (and long awaited) hospital appointment, or a last-minute problem with paid caring staff. In the past, employees have had to take time off either as unpaid leave or as part of their annual leave allowance.
The Carers Leave Act came into force on 6th April 2024, which entitles those who work for a company without a paid carer’s leave policy to take unpaid leave to give or arrange care for a dependant with a disability.
Who Is It For?
You could qualify for carer’s leave if you are caring for a ‘dependant’ who is disabled, has an illness expected to last more than three months, or needs care due to older age. They don’t need to be a relative and you also don’t need to provide any proof of their disability or your caring responsibilities to access the leave.
Carer’s leave is for employed workers, which usually means those who get paid by PAYE. It’s not for self-employed or freelance workers, who also do not receive paid holiday, sick pay, or compassionate leave allowances.
How It Works
Before you claim unpaid leave for caring under the Act, make sure your company doesn’t already have a policy in place for caring needs. You may get paid time off. If there is no policy but you require only an hour or two (such as to interview new care staff), speak to your line manager about finding other ways to make up the time instead of taking unpaid leave under the Act.
Employees can take up to one week of leave within a year of the date of their first day of leave. The days don’t need to be taken consecutively, so you could take half days or one day at a time when you know there is an appointment or other caring duty to carry out.
The leave allowance is worked out by how much you work. So, if you work four days a week, your annual entitlement to carer’s leave is four days. You’re entitled to this leave from the first day of employment and it doesn’t affect other rights such as holiday entitlement.
If you work unpredictable hours, add up the total number of hours worked in the last 12 months. Take this figure and divide by 52 (or however many weeks you have been in the job if it is less than a year) and that tells you how many hours of leave you are entitled to take.
You need to apply for carer’s leave at least three days before the date you need it, if it is up to one day. For more than one day, you have to apply for the leave twice as long as the leave required – for example, for three days of leave you need to apply with six days’ notice minimum.
Can My Employer Say No?
There are a few situations in which an employer can request carer’s leave is taken at another time – but they cannot outright refuse the request.
If your employer must delay the leave request because it would cause serious disruption to the organisation, they must offer another date within one month of the original leave date requested. They also have to write to you about why the leave has been delayed, and this must be done within seven days of the original request. So, if leave was granted twenty days ago and you are told ten days after that it must change, that isn’t allowed. But if leave was granted on a Monday and you were told on Thursday in the same week, that is three days and is allowed.
Other Unpaid Leave Options
This isn’t emergency, compassionate, or parental leave, which all have different rights. This gives you more flexibility in the type of leave you choose to take. Check your employer handbook or your contract to find out the details of policies for emergency, parental, and compassionate leave. You may find you can get some paid time off outside of your annual holiday allowance, depending on company policy.
Emergency leave is for unforeseen circumstances – such as if your childcare falls through due to a sick childminder at the last minute. You might be able to arrange alternatives to taking unpaid leave, such as working from home for the duration.
Parental leave allows parents to spend more time with their children for planned reasons. This might be to take them to see grandparents, visit new schools, or spend more time with them for their wellbeing. You are entitled to 18 weeks for each child up to their 18th birthday, with a maximum of four weeks in one year, and it must be taken as full weeks not single days.
Compassionate leave is usually given when a spouse or close relative has died. It may be taken consecutively or in different amounts – for example you might take a week upon your parent’s death and then another day for the funeral. This type of leave may also be given as a type of emergency leave and can be paid or unpaid depending on company policy.
But Unpaid Leave Means I Lose Money!
While taking leave under the Act means you will not be paid for the days or half days you take, you are also not eating into your annual leave allowance. This means you can more efficiently plan how to use your annual leave for yourself – which is important when it comes to being a carer.
It’s easy to put others ahead of yourself, but having access to your full holiday entitlement to use as you wish means you can allocate time for your own self-care in a busy world.
If you are a regular carer, there may be benefits you can apply for to help top up the loss of income from unpaid leave. Carers Allowance is for people caring for a dependant for 35 hours a week or more, while Carers Credit tops up the National Insurance credits for someone caring over 20 hours a week.
Use a benefits calculator such as Turn2Us to find out if you’re entitled to additional financial support for your caring circumstances.
