Employees are entitled to unpaid leave to give or arrange care for a ‘dependant’ who has a physical or mental illness or injury that means they’re expected to need care for more than 3 months, a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010 or care needs because of their old age
The dependant does not have to be a family member, it can be anyone who relies on them for care. Employees are entitled to carer’s leave from their first day of work for their employer (it is a day-1 right) and their employment rights are protected during the leave.
How long employees can take:
Employees can take up to 1 week of leave every 12 months. They can either take a whole week off or take individual days or half days throughout the year. ('1 week' is defined as the length of time that they usually work over 7 days so if someone usually works 3 days a week they can take 3 days of carer’s leave in a year.)
The 1 week rule of Carer's leave is Regardless of the number of people who the employee cares for, the 1 week every 12 months applies and it is not 1 week per person they care for.
Hope to calculate an employee's entitlement if their working hours change each week:
Add up the total number of hours worked in the previous 12 months.
Divide that total by 52 (or however many weeks since they started the job, if they’ve been in the job less than a year).
This is the amount of leave they can take as carer’s leave. If an employee wants to take carer’s leave in their first week, use the amount they’re expected to work in a week as the amount of leave they can take.
How to take carer’s leave:
Employees need to give their employer notice before they want their leave to start. If the request is for half a day or a day, the notice period must be at least 3 days. If the request is for more than one day, the notice period must be at least twice as long as the requested leave. For example, if the request is for 2 days, the notice period must be at least 4 days.
The notice period needs to be in full days, even if the request includes half day amounts. There is no requirement for the request to be made in writing however this is good practice. Furthermore, employees do not need to give evidence of their dependant’s care needs.
When employers can delay carer’s leave
Employers cannot refuse a carer’s leave request but can ask the employee to take it at a different time but only if the employee’s absence would cause serious disruption to the organisation. If they delay it, the employer must:
agree another date within one month of the requested date for the leave
put the reason for the delay and new date in writing to the employee within 7 days of the original request, and before the requested start date of the leave
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