What is carer's leave?

Employees who have dependants needing long-term care have a statutory right to take up to a week of unpaid time off to provide or arrange care for them. This is known as carer's leave.

An employee will be entitled to carer's leave from the day they start work (without needing a minimum period of service). They must have a qualifying relationship with the dependant.

Note: this is separate from the rights to:

• request time off to look after someone in an emergency, or
• to take parental leave to look after a child.

Qualifying for carer's leave

To qualify for carer's leave, an employee must be taking the time off to provide or arrange care for the dependant.

A dependant must be one of the following:

• The employee's spouse, civil partner, child or parent.
• Someone living in the employee's household (but not as their employee, boarder, lodger or tenant).
• Someone who reasonably relies on the employee to provide or arrange care for them.

The dependent must have a long-term care need, which means that:

• they have an illness or injury (physical or mental) that requires, or is likely to require, care for more than 3 months;
• they have a disability as defined by the Equality Act; or
• they require care for a reason that's connected with their old age.

A person is disabled under the Equality Act if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term effect on their ability to do normal daily activities.