Carer's leave: your day-one right to a week of unpaid time off

Updated 8 November 2026

Carer's leave is one of the simplest rights in employment law, and one of the least used. Here is who it covers, how much you can take, how much notice to give, what your employer can and cannot do, and how it fits with other kinds of time off.

Who can take carer's leave?

The right belongs to employees, and it starts on your first day working for your employer. There is no qualifying period and no minimum number of hours. Your employment rights, such as building up holiday and returning to your job, carry on while you are on carer's leave.

It comes from the Carer's Leave Act 2023 and the Carer's Leave Regulations 2024, which took effect on 6 April 2024. If you have seen a page saying carer's leave became a day-one right in October 2026, it is wrong: it has been a day-one right since it began. If you are not sure whether you count as an employee, our page on worker or employee status explains the difference.

Who counts as a dependant?

The government's guidance on carer's leave says you can take it to give or arrange care for a dependant who has:

• a physical or mental illness or injury that means they are expected to need care for more than three months
• a disability, as defined in the Equality Act 2010
• care needs because of their old age

The dependant does not have to be a relative. It can be anyone who relies on you for care: a partner, a parent, a child, a neighbour or a friend. You do not have to give your employer any evidence of their care needs.

How much carer's leave can you take?

Up to one week every 12 months. A week means the time you usually work over seven days, so if you normally work three days a week, you can take three days of carer's leave. You can take it all at once, or as single days or half days spread through the year.

The week is per employee, not per person you care for. If you look after two people, you still get one week in total, but you can split it between them.

If your hours change from week to week, add up the hours you worked in the previous 12 months and divide by 52, or by the number of weeks you have been in the job if it is less than a year. The answer is your week of carer's leave. If you need it in your first week, use the hours you are expected to work in a week.

How much notice do you need to give?

The notice rule depends on how much leave you want:

• Half a day or one day: at least three days' notice.
• More than one day: notice at least twice as long as the leave. For two days off, give at least four days' notice.

Notice is counted in full days, even when the request includes half days. It does not have to be in writing, although an email gives you a record. If someone needs you in a genuine emergency, you do not use carer's leave at all: the separate right to time off for dependants lets you take reasonable unpaid time off without notice to deal with it.

Can your employer refuse or postpone it?

Your employer cannot refuse a request for carer's leave. It can ask you to take it at a different time, but only if your absence would cause serious disruption to the business. If it does, it must:

• agree another date within one month of the date you asked for
• put the reason for the delay and the new date in writing, within seven days of your request and before the date your leave was due to start

A postponement that misses those conditions, or a flat refusal, is a breach of the right. The regulations also protect you from being subjected to a detriment, or dismissed, because you took or asked to take carer's leave.

Is carer's leave paid?

Not by law. Carer's leave is unpaid unless your contract or your employer's policy says otherwise, and some employers do pay it. Check your contract, staff handbook or intranet before you assume you will lose a day's pay.

Because it is unpaid, some carers use holiday instead. That is your choice, but you do not have to: carer's leave is a separate entitlement on top of your holiday.

How carer's leave fits with other time off

Carer's leave sits alongside several other rights, and it helps to use the right one:

• Time off for dependants covers emergencies, such as a sudden illness or a breakdown in care arrangements. It is unpaid, has no set number of days, and needs no advance notice.
• Unpaid parental leave lets parents take up to 18 weeks for each child before the child's 18th birthday. It is separate from carer's leave; see our page on maternity, paternity and parental leave.
• Flexible working is the longer-term fix if caring is a regular part of your week. You can ask from day one, and our flexible working request template shows how.

If your employer gets it wrong

Start by putting the problem in writing, quoting the Carer's Leave Regulations 2024 and the dates. If that does not resolve it, raise a formal grievance. A claim about detriment or dismissal goes to an employment tribunal, and the time limit is short: six months less a day where the act you are complaining about happened on or after 1 October 2026, three months less a day if it was earlier. You must contact Acas for early conciliation first. Our deadline calculator works out the date.