The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Bill, which was presented to Parliament in 2017, is now awaiting Report Stage in the House of Commons. Although the Bill is a Private Members’ Bill, it has the full support of the government. The Bill provides a right
for employed parents to be absent from work for two weeks following the death of a child under the age of 18. The Bill also provides that employed eligible parents who have at least 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer will be entitled to receive
parental bereavement pay during their bereavement leave, to be paid at the statutory flat rate (currently £145.18 per week) or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

The government has now published a consultation on parental bereavement leave and pay. The consultation, which runs until 8 June 2018, seeks views on who should be included in the definition of a bereaved parent for these purposes, whether the proposed two
weeks’ bereavement leave should be taken in a single block, non-consecutive blocks of a week or non-consecutive blocks of days, the period within which leave should be taken, whether notice should be given to take the leave and whether evidence of the right
to take the leave should be provided to the employer.

It is anticipated that the Bill’s provisions will come into force in 2020.

Source: New feed