The Laws on Dependency Leave for Parents

Dependency leave is time taken off work in order to deal with an emergency involving a dependent.

Who is a dependent?

A dependant is someone who relies on you for care. For example:

• Your spouse (wife / husband)
• Your child
• Your parent
• Your grand-child
• Your civil partner

What is an emergency?

An emergency is a serious and unexpected situation requiring immediate action. For example:

• An injury or illness (e.g. a car accident, or simply an elderly relative falling in their home and requiring A&E medical attention)
• The sudden worsening of a pre-existing condition
• A dependant, who is reliant on you to take them to hospital, suddenly goes into labour
• If childcare arrangements are suddenly disrupted (e.g. your child's nursery closes unexpectedly)
• If your child is involved in an incident at school (e.g. a playground fight or expulsion from school)

An emergency situation is not something that you know about in advance (e.g. a hospital appointment, or school holidays, or if your childminder tells you a few days before that they cannot look after your child etc).

How much time can I take off?

You are entitled to take a reasonable amount of time off to deal with an emergency. The amount of time required will depend upon the nature of the emergency.

Example:

Your child has suddenly come up with chicken pox overnight and so is turned away from nursery. You can take time off to attend a GP (if required) or make alternative child care arrangements. If you then want to take several days off to comfort your child during their recovery, that is no longer an emergency and so your employer may require you to take annual leave or parental leave to cover that additional period.

There is no limit on the number of times per year that you can take dependency leave. However your employer may become concerned and take action if this is becoming a regular occurrence and affecting your ability to carry out your job.

How much will I get paid?

Your employer doesn't have to pay you during dependency leave. (You may therefore choose to take paid holiday if you can't afford to lose pay.) However check your employment contract or employee handbook for your employer's policy on dependency leave pay.

How do you request emergency leave?

If you are dealing with an emergency situation, it is often not possible to let your employer know in advance that you will need time off. However you should let your employer know as soon as possible what is going on and how long you will need off.

If you are dealing with an ongoing situation you should keep your employer updated with your likely time off.

Example:

Your husband is in a serious car accident and his medical condition / whether emergency surgery is required is currently unknown. You might ring your employer from a taxi as you dash to hospital to say you won't be in that day. Once you have seen your husband and the hospital has decided that emergency surgery is required overnight, you should at an appropriate moment again get in touch with your employer to let them know that you won't be able to come in the next day due to still being required at the hospital.

Will taking dependency leave adversely affect my career?

Your employer is not legally allowed to treat you unfairly as a result of you taking dependency leave. For example, they should not refuse you promotion or choose you for redundancy on that basis.

If you feel that your employer is/has treat you unfairly as a result of taking dependency leave, speak to:

Your trade union representative
ACAS - 0300 123 1100
Your local Citizen's Advice Bureau

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Parental Rights Checker lets you check your legal rights as a parent on education, health and welfare decisions. Try it now →