When someone experiences a bereavement, the last thing they should worry about is navigating unclear workplace policies. Yet studies revealed that 22% of British workers felt they weren’t granted enough time off to grieve, while 43% weren’t offered paid leave to attend a funeral.
As the UK moves towards broader bereavement protections under the Employment Rights Bill, HR professionals must reassess their approach to compassionate leave.
Key Takeaways
- Compassionate leave in the UK currently has limited statutory protection
- The Employment Rights Bill will introduce statutory bereavement leave for broader categories
- Poor compassion leave management damages employee well-being, retention, and productivity
- Absence management software helps HR teams handle requests consistently
Why Compassionate Leave Matters for Modern HR Teams
Balancing empathy and compliance in the workplace
What does compassionate leave mean? In the UK, compassionate leave refers to time away from work granted when an employee experiences the death of a close family member or loved one. Unlike holiday entitlement, which employees plan in advance, compassionate leave addresses unexpected personal crises that demand immediate attention.
Bereavement affects 75% of people during their working lives, yet studies showed 22% of British workers felt they weren’t permitted enough time off to grieve. But without clear policies, HR teams face difficult judgments about what constitutes "reasonable" time off, creating inconsistencies that erode trust and potentially breach employment law.
The business impact of poorly managed compassionate leave
Bereavement costs the UK economy approximately £23 billion annually in lost productivity. When employees lack adequate support during times of grief, the impact extends far beyond their immediate absence.
Recent data shows that 10.4% of UK employees took compassionate leave in the past year, yet the average duration was just 1.6 days. This suggests many employees return to work before they’re ready, either due to financial pressure or unclear entitlements. The cost to businesses includes not just lost productivity but increased absenteeism, presenteeism, reduced engagement, degraded employer reputation and eventual staff turnover.
Understanding Compassionate Leave – Legal and HR Context in the UK
What the UK law says (and doesn’t say)
What is compassionate leave in legal terms? UK statutory compassionate leave provisions are surprisingly limited. The Employment Rights Act 1996 provides employees with the right to "time off for dependants"—a reasonable amount of time off to deal with emergencies. However, there’s no legal requirement for this leave to be paid—that’s at the employer’s discretion.
Jack’s Law—the Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Regulations introduced in April 2020—gives employed parents two weeks’ leave when a child under 18 dies or when a stillbirth occurs after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Parents are entitled to statutory parental bereavement pay at £184.03 per week or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
Outside of Jack’s Law, there is no statutory compassionate leave in the UK legislation covering other bereavements. If an employee’s parent, sibling, or grandparent dies, there’s no legal entitlement to paid leave.
Why company policies fill the gap
With so little in the law itself, what employers offer varies widely. Well-defined policies demonstrate to employees that they’re valued, eliminate confusion during challenging times, and ensure fair treatment throughout the organisation.
When formal bereavement policies don’t exist, many bereaved employees have no choice but to take sick leave. At £116.75 per week, Statutory Sick Pay falls significantly short of the £184.03 parental bereavement rate, leaving many unable to afford the time away they need.
Typical HR Practices – How UK Companies Handle Compassionate Leave
Average duration and pay conditions
Most UK employers provide three to five days of paid leave for immediate family bereavements, such as the death of a spouse, partner, parent, or child. For extended family members such as grandparents or siblings, compassionate leave allowance typically drops to one to three days. For more distant relations—in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins—many employers offer just one day.
Is compassionate leave paid? This varies significantly across UK organisations. Some provide full pay, others offer only statutory rates, and some provide unpaid leave only. Without clear statutory requirements beyond Jack’s Law, employers set their own terms.
How long is compassionate leave in practice? Research reveals a concerning gap between policy and reality. While 94% of respondents believe compassionate leave policies should be flexible, bereaved employees actually took an average of only 1.6 days off work. This suggests financial constraints or workplace pressure force many back before they’ve had adequate time to grieve and handle practical arrangements, including funeral planning.
Defining clear eligibility rules
Determining which relationships qualify for compassionate leave for funeral attendance presents ongoing challenges for HR teams. Traditional hierarchies based on family relationships increasingly feel outdated in modern Britain, where step-families, chosen families, and diverse relationship structures are common.
Progressive employers are moving towards broader, more inclusive criteria. Rather than prescribing specific family relationships, some use flexible definitions like "anyone with whom you have a close personal relationship" or "someone whose death significantly impacts your well-being.” This approach recognises that grief isn’t measured by biological connection alone.
Pro Tip: Kelio’s absence management software allows unlimited customisable absence categories, letting you create distinct compassionate leave types for different scenarios while maintaining consistent policy application.
Emerging policy considerations also include pregnancy loss (miscarriage or stillbirth before 24 weeks), with leading organisations like NHS England and Co-op introducing dedicated provisions in this area.
Example of a fair and compliant policy
What does effective compassionate leave entitlement look like in practice? Co-op, frequently cited as a sector leader, demonstrates best-practice thinking. Their approach combines:
Clear entitlement tiers: Defined days based on relationship closeness, with flexibility for individual circumstances
Paid leave: Full pay during compassionate leave, removing financial barriers to taking the necessary time
Simple request process: Employees can self-certify through HR without requiring manager approval, protecting privacy
Additional support: Access to counselling services and flexible return-to-work arrangements
Leading organisations recognise that compassionate leave examples aren’t one-size-fits-all. The best policies build in flexibility, allowing managers to extend leave when circumstances demand it—such as when funerals occur abroad, when the employee must serve as executor of the estate, or when caring for other bereaved family members.
Common Challenges for HR Teams
Inconsistent application across departments
Formal policies don’t guarantee consistent practice, as implementation varies significantly between departments and managers. Managers who have personally experienced bereavement tend to respond with greater empathy and flexibility. Others, lacking this experience, may struggle to understand why an employee needs more than a day or two away from work.
Such variations create unfairness and legal risk, and bereavement-related absence should instead be handled sensitively and recorded appropriately to avoid discrimination claims. When some employees receive three days paid leave while others in identical circumstances receive only unpaid time off, trust breaks down and potential tribunal claims emerge.
Lack of visibility on who is off and why
HR teams can’t manage what they can’t see. In organisations relying on spreadsheets or disconnected systems, maintaining a clear picture of compassionate leave becomes impossible. Who is currently off? For how long? When do they return? Without centralised visibility, managers struggle to plan workloads, and HR cannot ensure consistent policy application.
Modern absence management solutions provide real-time dashboards showing all absences at a glance. HR sees comprehensive patterns, managers view their team’s status, and automatic notifications ensure return-to-work conversations happen at the right time—all while maintaining appropriate confidentiality.
Sensitive data management and confidentiality issues
Bereavement is intensely personal. Employees may not want to disclose details about which family member died, the circumstances of death, or their emotional state to their line manager—particularly if the working relationship is strained or if the manager has their own complicated bereavement history.
Modern HR portals address this by allowing employees to record compassionate leave through simple category selection, without requiring extensive detail. HR receives sufficient information to process the request and ensure policy compliance, while the employee maintains privacy and dignity during an extremely difficult time.
How HR Software Supports Compassionate Leave Management
Automating requests and approvals
Digital systems transform how compassionate leave operates. Instead of making difficult phone calls at traumatic times, employees can submit requests through self-service portals on any device. Kelio’s flexible approval workflows can be configured for automatic approval in the first few days, so bereaved employees aren’t left waiting for permission at the worst possible time.
Ensuring compliance and equity
Purpose-built absence systems guarantee that compassionate leave is logged under its own category, distinct from sick leave or annual holiday. Separate recording is essential for legal compliance: for instance, pregnancy-related absence must be tracked independently to prevent sex discrimination.
Kelio allows organisations to create specific absence categories for compassionate leave, bereavement leave, and pregnancy loss with their own rules. The system automatically excludes these absences from trigger calculations.
Managing all leave types in one system (Kelio use case)
How many days of compassionate leave should you track alongside other leave? Compassionate leave doesn’t exist in isolation. Kelio’s comprehensive approach tracks annual leave, sick leave, compassionate leave, and parental leave within a single platform.
Integration with payroll ensures compassionate leave flows correctly to salary calculations without manual re-entry. Kelio integrates with over 160 payroll packages, including Sage, Pegasus, and Iris. The Planning module synchronises leave with team schedules in real time.
Did You Know? Kelio synchronises leave events with Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and Lotus Notes, ensuring compassionate leave automatically appears in team calendars.
Best Practices for HR – Building a Compassionate Leave Framework
Define clear internal rules and communication
A robust compassionate leave policy starts with documentation that leaves no room for confusion. Your written guidelines should specify exactly what employees can expect: the number of days available depending on their situation, whether the organisation provides full pay or statutory rates, the process for making requests, and any supporting evidence required.
The trickiest policy decisions often revolve around eligibility boundaries. Which family relationships will qualify for different leave durations? How many days of compassionate leave will you provide for different scenarios? What compassionate leave examples will guide managers in handling ambiguous cases? These questions demand explicit answers that you then communicate throughout the organisation.
Train managers to handle sensitive requests
A comprehensive policy document means nothing if the managers implementing it lack the skills to do so compassionately. Training shouldn’t be optional: every manager needs instruction on both the technical policy details and the interpersonal dimensions of supporting bereaved team members.
The training curriculum should emphasise that bereavement affects everyone differently, with no standard timeline for grief. Above all, managers must learn where their responsibilities end—they’re there to provide support and follow established procedures, not to interrogate employees about their feelings or assess whether their grief meets some arbitrary standard of legitimacy.
Use technology to support empathy and compliance
Technology doesn’t diminish the human side of bereavement support—it amplifies your ability to deliver it consistently. Kelio’s absence management platform embeds your policy logic, ensuring every request follows the same fair process regardless of who submits it or when. The employee self-service features prove especially valuable here, allowing staff to request leave whenever they need to, from whatever device they have available.
Did You Know? Organisations using Kelio’s absence management system report 96.1% satisfaction with deployment, with 99.1% satisfied with ongoing support. The centralised platform eliminates the spreadsheet chaos that contributes to inconsistent compassionate leave administration.
When you’re managing absence across multiple locations, centralised data becomes critical, and you can’t support what you can’t track. Automated notifications for return-to-work conversations ensure managers reach out to team members at the right moment without needing to manually monitor every absence.
Your compassionate leave policy reveals your organisation’s values in action. Excellence in this area demands three elements working together: unambiguous written guidelines, managers who apply them with genuine empathy, and systems that make the process accessible when employees need it most. With UK legislation evolving to expand bereavement protections, organisations must act now to ensure their policies protect both their workforce and their business interests.
See how Kelio simplifies HR complexity – from compassionate leave to absence tracking.
