Carer's leave when HR software handles the request (UK)

Carer's leave gives employees who look after a relative or someone else with long-term care needs a small, flexible amount of time off each year. It is unpaid, it is a day one right, and it can be taken in half days. Those features clash with HR systems built around holiday or sickness rules, which tend to ask for evidence, round up to whole days or count a calendar year. This page sets out the rules in Great Britain and where software most often gets them wrong. It is for employees and for employers.

The short answer: since 6 April 2024, an employee can take up to one week of carer's leave in any rolling 12 months to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need. It can be taken in half days, single days or a block of up to a week. Notice is at least 3 days, or twice the length of the leave if longer. The employer cannot ask for evidence before granting it, and can postpone it only for serious business disruption, within a month.

Who can take carer's leave

The right comes from the Employment Rights Act 1996 (s80J), inserted by the Carer's Leave Act 2023, and the Carer's Leave Regulations 2024, which came into force on 6 April 2024 and extend to England, Wales and Scotland (reg 1). A dependant is a spouse, civil partner, child or parent of the employee, someone who lives in the same household (other than as a tenant, lodger, boarder or employee), or someone who reasonably relies on the employee to provide or arrange care. A long-term care need means an illness or injury that needs or is likely to need care for more than three months, a disability under the Equality Act 2010, or care needs connected with old age (s80J(2)).

The employee qualifies if they have such a dependant, want to be absent to provide or arrange care, have not used up their entitlement, and give notice (reg 4). There is no minimum length of service, so a tool that applies a probation or service test to carer's leave is wrong.

How much and how it is counted

The entitlement is one week in the relevant period (reg 5), which is the 12 months ending on the last day of the leave requested (reg 3). That is a rolling period, not a calendar or holiday year, so a system that resets the balance every 1 January or every holiday year can let an employee take more, or less, than the law provides. The minimum is half a working day, the maximum in one go is a continuous week, and days need not be consecutive (reg 5). A week means the employee's normal working week; for variable hours it is an average over the relevant period, worked out under reg 6.

Notice, evidence and postponement

• Notice: the employee must say they are entitled to carer's leave and give the days or half days. The notice must arrive before whichever is the earlier of twice as many days before the leave as the days requested, or 3 days before it. In practice that means at least 3 days' notice, or twice the length of the leave if that is longer. The employer can waive late notice (reg 7).
• No evidence: the employer cannot require evidence before granting the leave (reg 7(4)). A form that will not submit without an attached document breaks this rule.
• Postponement: the employer can postpone only if it reasonably considers the business would be unduly disrupted. It must agree a new date, after consulting the employee, no later than one month after the first day requested, and give written reasons within 7 days of the request and before the leave was due to start (reg 8). An employer cannot refuse the leave outright.

Pay and protection

There is no statutory pay for carer's leave. Contract terms other than pay continue during the leave (reg 9), and the employee returns to the same job after an isolated period of leave (reg 10). Employees are protected from detriment for taking or seeking to take carer's leave (reg 11), and a dismissal for that reason is automatically unfair (reg 12). Absence scoring or attendance warnings that count carer's leave as unauthorised absence put the employer at risk on both counts.

Practical steps

• Employers: set up carer's leave as its own absence type with a rolling 12 month balance, half day booking, no evidence field, no service test and the 3 day or double length notice rule. Keep it out of absence trigger scores. Give a named person the job of handling postponements in writing within 7 days.
• Employees: say in your request that you are taking carer's leave for a dependant with a long-term care need, and give the dates. If a portal asks for proof, you do not have to provide it before the leave is granted. For a sudden emergency, see time off for dependants; for a lasting change to your hours, see flexible working requests.

The regulations do not extend to Northern Ireland. This page is general information on the law in Great Britain as at 1 November 2026, not legal advice.