What is bereavement leave and pay?

Modified on Tue, 10 Dec at 3:06 PM

From 6 April 2020, under the Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Regulations (Jack's Law), parents are entitled to two weeks statutory parental bereavement leave (SPBL) and pay (SPBP).

What are the circumstances in which SPBL is applied?

The entitlement applies to the following circumstances:

Employed parents and adults with parental responsibility who have suffered the loss of a child under the age of 18; Adults with ‘parental responsibility’ include adopters, foster parents and guardians.
Kinship carers, who may be close relatives or family friends that have assumed responsibility for looking after a child in the absence of parents.
Parents who suffer a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. In this instance, female employees will still be entitled to up to 52 weeks of maternity leave and/or pay, as will a mother who loses a child after it is born.
Parents and primary carers must have been employed for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks before the child’s death to be eligible for paid parental bereavement leave. All employees have a ‘day one’ right to unpaid bereavement leave.

Taking leave and receiving pay

Employees are entitled to take leave and receive pay (if qualifies) as a single block of two weeks or discontinuously as 2 separate blocks of 1 week each.
The entitlement must be taken within 56 weeks, starting with the date of the child’s death and can start on any day of the week and if the loss of more than one child is experienced, the entitlement is granted for each child.
The employee must provide evidence of entitlement in writing including a written declaration that the person meets the qualifying conditions for Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay including details of the following:

The name of the person claiming SPBP.
The date of the child’s death (or date of birth for a stillborn child).
The period or periods in relation to which statutory parental bereavement pay is to be paid.

Calculating statutory parental bereavement pay

Payment is calculated at the statutory rate in force for the year or 90% of average weekly earnings if less. Increases will be applied each tax year in line with other statutory parental payments such as SMP, SPP and SAP.
The payment figure will be reported through the Full Payment Submission (FPS) and the recoverable amounts included as a year to date figure on the Employer Payment Summary (EPS).
The principle of entitlement to the maximum amounts of statutory relief is compliant with rules for other statutory payments excluding Statutory Sick Pay.

Within Cintra iQ, you can create a Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP) claim for an employee who has experienced a child's death.

Before you begin...

Before you create a Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP) claim, you must create a Bereavement Leave calendar event. For more information, see How Do I Create a Bereavement Leave Calendar Event?

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