Carer's Leave UK: The Employer's Guide to the 2024 Right
Around one in seven people in the UK workforce juggles a job with caring for someone. Until April 2024, none of them had any statutory right to take time off to do it — they used annual leave, called in sick, or quietly dropped to part time. Carer's leave changed that, and it is one of the few employment rights that applies from an employee's very first day.
It is also one of the least well understood. The entitlement is short, unpaid, and hedged with rules that behave differently from every other kind of leave you administer. This guide covers exactly who qualifies, what notice you can insist on, the one thing you are not allowed to ask for, and how to record it without it leaking into holiday balances. For the wider picture, see our guide to staff leave management in the UK.
What Is Carer's Leave?
Carer's leave is a statutory entitlement to one week of unpaid leave in any rolling 12-month period to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need. It was created by the Carer's Leave Act 2023 and brought into force by the Carer's Leave Regulations 2024 on 6 April 2024.
Three features make it unusual:
- It is a day-one right. No qualifying service. An employee who starts on Monday can request carer's leave on Tuesday.
- You cannot refuse it. You can postpone it in limited circumstances, but there is no power to say no outright.
- You cannot ask for proof. The regulations expressly remove any right to require evidence.
It applies to employees rather than the wider category of workers, so agency workers and genuinely self-employed contractors are outside it.
How Much Leave, and How Is a "Week" Measured?
The entitlement is one week per rolling 12 months — and "a week" means the employee's own normal working week, not a fixed five days. This trips up employers who administer it as a flat five-day allowance.
| Working pattern | Carer's leave entitlement |
|---|---|
| 5 days per week | 5 days |
| 3 days per week | 3 days |
| 2 days per week | 2 days |
| Irregular hours | Based on the average working week |
Leave can be taken as individual days, half days, or a single continuous block up to the full week. An employee might use it as five separate afternoons across a year, or take the lot in one go when a parent is discharged from hospital. Both are within the rules.
The 12 months is a rolling period looking back from the date of the request, not a fixed leave year — which is precisely the kind of calculation that goes wrong in a spreadsheet. If you already track TOIL balances, you will recognise the problem.
Who Counts as a Dependant?
The definition is deliberately broad. A dependant is:
- A spouse or civil partner
- A child or a parent
- Someone living in the same household, other than as a tenant, lodger, boarder or employee
- Anyone else who reasonably relies on the employee to provide or arrange care
That last category is the widest. A neighbour, a close friend, a grandparent in a different city — all can qualify if there is genuine reliance. There is no requirement for a blood relationship or shared address.
What Is a "Long-Term Care Need"?
The dependant must have a long-term care need, which means one of the following:
- An illness or injury (physical or mental) that is likely to require care for more than three months
- A disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010
- Care needs connected with old age
This is the line that separates carer's leave from the older right to time off for dependants under section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996. That right covers sudden, unexpected emergencies — a child sent home from school, a care arrangement collapsing at short notice. Carer's leave covers planned, ongoing caring for a long-term need. An employee can use both, for different situations.
Carer's leave is for the hospital appointment you knew about three weeks ago. Time off for dependants is for the phone call you did not see coming. Confusing the two is the most common administrative error we see.
The Notice Rules
The employee must give notice of either twice the length of the leave requested, or three days — whichever is longer.
| Leave requested | Twice the length | Notice required |
|---|---|---|
| Half a day | 1 day | 3 days |
| 1 day | 2 days | 3 days |
| 3 days | 6 days | 6 days |
| 5 days | 10 days | 10 days |
The notice does not have to be in writing, and the employee does not have to use a particular form. In practice, giving people a simple online request route makes the paper trail look after itself — the same reason employers move holiday booking off email in the first place.
When Can You Postpone Carer's Leave?
You cannot refuse a request, but you may postpone it where you reasonably consider that granting it on the requested dates would unduly disrupt the business. If you postpone, you must:
- Consult the employee before confirming the postponement
- Set out the reason for postponing in writing
- Agree alternative dates that begin no more than one month after the originally requested start date
"Undue disruption" is a genuine business test, not a convenience test. Postponing because a manager would rather not do the rota again will not survive scrutiny. Postponing because the request covers the two days of a planned system migration where the employee is the only trained operator probably will.
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Jordan Ingoe, CLI Manchester
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Employment Protections
Employees taking carer's leave are protected from detriment — you cannot deny a promotion, cut hours, or exclude someone from training because they took it. Dismissal for taking or seeking to take carer's leave is automatically unfair, with no minimum service requirement.
Terms and conditions continue during the leave, apart from pay. Holiday continues to accrue. Pension and benefits continue as normal.
There is a practical point here too. Many carers do not identify as carers, and many do not ask. If your absence figures show a pattern of odd single days going through as sickness in one team, carer's leave may be the thing people are reaching for and not finding. Our guide on managing staff absence covers how to read those patterns.
How to Set Carer's Leave Up Properly
- Add it to your absence policy. Name it, state the entitlement, state the notice periods, and explain how to request it.
- Create a separate leave type. Do not run it through holiday, and do not run it through sickness — both distort your reporting and one of them affects Bradford Factor scores unfairly.
- Set the balance to the working week. Three days for a three-day-a-week employee, not five.
- Track on a rolling 12 months. Not your leave year.
- Brief managers on the two rules they will get wrong: you cannot refuse, and you cannot ask for evidence.
- Tell people it exists. An unadvertised right is one nobody uses.
A leave request system handles most of this once configured — the entitlement, the rolling window, the audit trail, and the manager notification all follow from setting the leave type up once.
Is Paid Carer's Leave Coming?
The government has committed to reviewing how carer's leave is working in practice, including whether it should be paid. At the time of writing, no change has taken effect and the entitlement remains unpaid. Employers considering offering paid carer's leave as a benefit should treat it as a contractual enhancement and say so explicitly in the policy, so the statutory and contractual elements stay distinguishable. We track changes of this kind in our coverage of the Employment Rights Act 2026.
Key Takeaways
- One week of unpaid leave per rolling 12 months, from day one of employment
- "A week" means the employee's normal working week, not a flat five days
- Notice is twice the leave length, or three days, whichever is longer
- You cannot refuse — only postpone by up to a month, in writing, for genuine business disruption
- You cannot require evidence of the caring relationship
- Dismissal for taking carer's leave is automatically unfair with no qualifying period
- Track it as its own leave type, on a rolling 12-month basis
Frequently Asked Questions
Is carer's leave paid in the UK?
No. The statutory entitlement is unpaid. Employers can choose to offer paid carer's leave as a contractual benefit, and some do, but there is no legal obligation to pay it.
How much carer's leave are employees entitled to?
One week in any rolling 12-month period. A 'week' means the employee's normal working week, so someone who works three days a week gets three days, not five.
Do employees need to have worked for me for a certain time?
No. Carer's leave is a day-one right. There is no qualifying service period, unlike most other statutory leave entitlements.
Can I refuse a carer's leave request?
You cannot refuse it outright. You can postpone it by up to a month where the business would be unduly disrupted, but you must explain why in writing and agree alternative dates.
Can I ask for evidence that the employee is a carer?
No. The regulations specifically prevent employers from requiring evidence before granting carer's leave. The request itself is sufficient.
What counts as a dependant for carer's leave?
A spouse, civil partner, child or parent, someone living in the same household other than as a tenant or lodger, or anyone else who reasonably relies on the employee for care.
Sources
- The Carer's Leave Regulations 2024 — legislation.gov.uk
- Carer's leave — Acas