Carers Leave.

Dancingcrocodile

Does anyone know anything on the law behind carers leave. Is it actual law or at the discretion of your employer?

Also do you have to be an ‘official’ carer to be entitled to use it.

thank you 

Brie

Unpaid carer’s leave - GOV.UK

Unpaid carer’s leave

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 in the Equality Act 2010)
• 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. Their employment rights (like holidays and returning to their job) are protected during carer’s leave.

So if your elderly neighbour needs care, (washing, cleaning, preparing food, driving to medical appointments) that is allowed in the same way if it was your own parent or child.  

Undervalued

As above but what that quote doesn't make clear is that.....

The right is to short periods (which the law doesn't define) of unpaid leave in emergency situations.

That is normally taken to mean a few days to make arrangements and not to long periods of leave to do the caring on an ongoing basis.

All employers are legally required to allow at least that. Some will be flexible and allow significantly more but that is at their discretion.

It does not cover (unless the employer so chooses) time to sit at the bedside of a dependant in hospital etc.

Curiously there is no legal right to so called "compassionate leave" although it would be a rare and heartless employer that didn't allow at least some! Many of course are far more generous.

Marcon

Dancingcrocodile said:

Does anyone know anything on the law behind carers leave. Is it actual law or at the discretion of your employer?

Also do you have to be an ‘official’ carer to be entitled to use it.

thank you 

Employees can take up to one week of leave every 12 months. A ‘week’ means the length of time they usually work over 7 days. For example, if someone usually works 3 days a week, they can take 3 days of carer’s leave.

They can either take a whole week off or take individual days or half days throughout the year.

If an employee needs to care for more than one person, they cannot take a week of carer’s leave for each dependant. They can only take one week every 12 months. They can use the week of leave on more than one dependant.

Quote taken from https://www.gov.uk/carers-leave#:~:text=The%20dependant%20does%20not%20have,are%20protected%20during%20carer's%20leave. - worth reading in full.

Undervalued

Marcon said:

Dancingcrocodile said:

Does anyone know anything on the law behind carers leave. Is it actual law or at the discretion of your employer?

Also do you have to be an ‘official’ carer to be entitled to use it.

thank you 

Employees can take up to one week of leave every 12 months. A ‘week’ means the length of time they usually work over 7 days. For example, if someone usually works 3 days a week, they can take 3 days of carer’s leave.

They can either take a whole week off or take individual days or half days throughout the year.

If an employee needs to care for more than one person, they cannot take a week of carer’s leave for each dependant. They can only take one week every 12 months. They can use the week of leave on more than one dependant.

Quote taken from https://www.gov.uk/carers-leave#:~:text=The%20dependant%20does%20not%20have,are%20protected%20during%20carer's%20leave. - worth reading in full.

Thanks.

Also relevant is this page about care in emergency situations

https://www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants

This is more along the lines I was describing earlier.