Carer's Leave (UK / Australia)
A statutory leave entitlement allowing employees to take time off work to provide care or support for a dependant or immediate family member with a serious medical condition, disability, or unexpected emergency.
- What Is Carer's Leave?
- Carer's Leave in the UK: The 2024 Framework
- Carer's Leave in Australia: Fair Work Act Entitlements
- UK vs Australia: Key Differences
- Caregiving and Employment Statistics
- Designing Your Carer's Leave Policy
- Managing Carer's Leave in Practice
- Frequently Asked Questions About Carer's Leave
What Is Carer's Leave?
Key Takeaways
- ✓Carer's leave gives employees statutory time off to look after someone who depends on them for care, whether that's a spouse, child, parent, or another person with a long-term care need.
- ✓The UK introduced a new standalone right to carer's leave in April 2024 under the Carer's Leave Act 2023. It provides one week of unpaid leave per year, available from day one of employment.
- ✓Australia's carer's leave sits within the personal/carer's leave entitlement under the National Employment Standards: 10 paid days per year for full-time employees.
- ✓In both countries, employees don't need to be the primary carer or live with the person they're caring for. The relationship just needs to meet the statutory definition of dependant or family member.
- ✓Employers can't dismiss or disadvantage an employee for requesting or taking carer's leave. Both the UK and Australian frameworks include explicit protection against detriment.
Carer's leave exists because millions of employees are juggling work alongside caring for someone who's ill, disabled, elderly, or dealing with a crisis. Before the UK's 2024 legislation, carers had to rely on annual leave, sick leave, or informal arrangements to manage their responsibilities. There wasn't a dedicated right. Australia has had carer's leave embedded in its system for much longer, bundled with personal (sick) leave under the Fair Work Act. The principle is straightforward: people shouldn't have to choose between their job and looking after someone they love. For HR teams, the challenge is understanding how two different legal systems handle the same concept. The UK's version is newer, narrower, and unpaid. Australia's is more established, broader, and paid. If you're managing employees in both countries, you'll need separate policies and processes for each.
Carer's Leave in the UK: The 2024 Framework
The Carer's Leave Act 2023 came into force on 6 April 2024. Here's how the new right works in practice.
Eligibility and scope
Every employee in the UK has the right to carer's leave from their first day of work. There's no minimum service requirement. The leave covers situations where the employee is providing or arranging care for a dependant with a long-term care need. "Long-term" means a condition that's expected to last at least three months, a disability under the Equality Act 2010, or old age. The dependant can be a spouse, civil partner, child, parent, someone living in the same household (excluding tenants, lodgers, or employees), or anyone who reasonably relies on the employee for care.
Duration and flexibility
Employees can take up to one week (5 working days for full-time staff) of unpaid carer's leave per rolling 12-month period. The leave can be taken flexibly: as individual days, half days, or a full week at once. It can't be taken in blocks smaller than half a day. Employees must give notice of at least twice the length of leave requested (for example, 2 days' notice for 1 day of leave), or 3 days' notice if requesting a full week.
Employer limitations
Employers can postpone carer's leave if they reasonably believe the business would be seriously disrupted. They can't refuse it outright. If postponing, they must allow the employee to take the leave within one month of the originally requested date and give written notice explaining the reason. Employers can't require employees to provide evidence of the dependant's condition. Dismissing or subjecting an employee to detriment for taking carer's leave is automatically unfair.
Carer's Leave in Australia: Fair Work Act Entitlements
Australia doesn't have a standalone carer's leave act. Instead, carer's leave is part of the personal/carer's leave entitlement under the National Employment Standards.
Paid personal/carer's leave
Full-time employees accrue 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave per year. Part-time employees accrue a pro-rata amount based on their ordinary hours. This leave accumulates year on year with no cap. Employees can use this leave to care for an immediate family member or household member who is ill, injured, or affected by an unexpected emergency. "Immediate family" includes a spouse, de facto partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling of the employee or their partner.
Unpaid carer's leave
In addition to paid leave, all employees (including casuals) are entitled to 2 days of unpaid carer's leave per occasion when their paid leave is exhausted. Each new illness or emergency counts as a separate occasion. This means an employee who has used all their paid personal/carer's leave can still take unpaid leave for each new caring situation that arises. There's no annual cap on the number of occasions.
Evidence requirements
Australian employers can request evidence for carer's leave if the absence is more than one day, or if the employee has already taken all paid personal/carer's leave and is using unpaid carer's leave. Acceptable evidence includes a medical certificate or a statutory declaration. The evidence must indicate the person requires care and that the employee needs to provide it. Employers can't unreasonably refuse to accept the evidence provided.
UK vs Australia: Key Differences
While both countries provide carer's leave, the details differ significantly. This comparison helps HR teams managing cross-border workforces.
| Feature | UK (from April 2024) | Australia (Fair Work Act) |
|---|---|---|
| Paid or unpaid | Unpaid | 10 days paid (accrued), plus 2 days unpaid per occasion |
| Annual entitlement | 1 week (5 days) | 10 days paid + unlimited unpaid occasions |
| Qualifying period | None (day 1 right) | Accrues from start of employment |
| Accumulation | Doesn't carry over | Paid leave accumulates with no cap |
| Who qualifies as dependant | Spouse, civil partner, child, parent, household member, anyone relying on employee for care | Immediate family or household member |
| Evidence required | No, employer can't demand it | Yes, for absences over 1 day |
| Employer can postpone | Yes, if serious business disruption | No, but can request evidence |
| Protection against detriment | Yes, automatically unfair dismissal | Yes, adverse action protections under Fair Work Act |
Caregiving and Employment Statistics
The numbers make it clear why carer's leave matters. A large share of the working population juggles employment with caring duties.
Designing Your Carer's Leave Policy
The statutory minimums are just the floor. Many employers offer more generous provisions to attract and retain employees with caring responsibilities.
Going beyond the minimum
In the UK, the statutory entitlement is unpaid, which means many lower-paid employees simply can't afford to use it. Progressive employers are topping up with paid carer's leave: 5 to 10 days paid leave per year is becoming common in large UK organizations. In Australia, since the 10-day entitlement is already paid, enhancements typically focus on flexibility, like allowing carer's leave for non-family members or extending the definition of caring situations.
Flexible working arrangements
Carer's leave works best alongside flexible working options. Employees who need to provide ongoing care often benefit more from adjusted hours, remote working, or compressed schedules than from additional leave days. Both UK and Australian law give employees the right to request flexible working. In the UK, this became a day-one right in April 2024. Pairing your carer's leave policy with flexible working options creates a more practical support system.
Manager training
Managers are the gatekeepers of leave policies. If they don't understand carer's leave rights, they'll create problems. Train managers on the legal requirements, how to handle requests sensitively, and what they can and can't ask for. In the UK specifically, remind managers they cannot request proof of the dependant's condition. A supportive conversation beats a compliance checklist every time.
Managing Carer's Leave in Practice
Administrative processes for carer's leave need to be simple. Employees are already dealing with a stressful caring situation.
- Keep the request process lightweight: A brief form or email should be enough. Don't build a bureaucratic approval chain for someone caring for an ill parent.
- Track leave balances accurately: In Australia, personal/carer's leave accumulates year over year. Your HRIS needs to reflect the correct accrued balance, especially for long-tenured employees with large banks of unused leave.
- Separate carer's leave from sick leave in reporting: Even though Australia bundles them, tracking how much leave is used for caring versus personal illness helps you understand workforce patterns and plan accordingly.
- Document any postponements properly: In the UK, if you postpone a carer's leave request, you must give written notice explaining the reason and offer an alternative date within one month. Keep records.
- Return-to-work conversations: When an employee returns from carer's leave, check in. Their caring responsibilities don't disappear when the leave ends. Ask whether they need any ongoing adjustments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an employee take carer's leave for a friend, not a family member?
Does carer's leave count toward continuous service?
Can an employer ask what the medical condition is?
What happens if an employee exhausts their carer's leave?
Are casual employees in Australia entitled to carer's leave?
Written by Adithyan RK