Recent research shows that approximately 4.9 million people in the UK provide unpaid care to elderly or disabled family members or dependents.  Half of these individuals also have to balance work alongside caring.

To help unpaid carers, the Carer’s Leave Act introduces a new right to ‘Carer’s Leave’. The idea is to enable carers to better balance their work and caring responsibilities, and help them remain in employment.  Recently released draft regulations indicate that this new right will apply in England, Wales and Scotland from 6 April 2024.

Carer’s Leave will be a new, flexible, unpaid leave which:

• can be used to provide or arrange care for a dependent with a long-term care need;
• is available to all eligible employees, regardless of how long they have worked for their employer;
• can be taken as half-days or individual days, up to a maximum of one week over a rolling 12-month period; and
• will not require any evidence to be provided by employees.

Employees taking Carer’s Leave will also benefit from the same employment protections as those on other forms of family related leave.

This article reflects the position at the date of publication (13 February 2024). If you are reading this at a later date you are advised to check that that position has not changed in the time since.    

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