Northern Ireland Statutory Bereavement Leave & Pay changes

The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018 was introduced to support employees through the difficult time of losing a child.

These provisions came into force in April 2020 in England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland (NI) was not able to introduce them at that time due to the suspension of the Assembly. Following its return, NI introduced Statutory Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay (SPBL/P) through the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. The associated regulations can be found in The Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (General) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023.

The new Act has been split into two phases. The first phase, which came into effect in April 2022, mirrored the Great Britain provisions for SPBL/P. The second phase, which comes into force in April 2026, introduces eligibility criteria that apply only in NI, along with additional reporting changes required for the FPS and EPS.

The changes are:

• Access to parental bereavement pay as a day one right in cases of stillbirth and child death, removing the 26-week continuous employment requirement that continues to apply in Britain.
• Inclusion of miscarriage (up to 24 weeks) as part of the bereavement provision, also available from the first day of employment.
• The miscarriage element of the bereavement payment and the day one right for parental bereavement payments apply only to claimants gainfully employed in Northern Ireland and for whom an employer makes Class 1 National Insurance contributions.
• Payments made under these distinct NI entitlements (miscarriage payments and the day one right for parental bereavement payments) must be reported and accounted for separately.

• Access to parental bereavement pay as a day one right in cases of stillbirth and child death, removing the 26-week continuous employment requirement that continues to apply in Britain.
• Inclusion of miscarriage (up to 24 weeks) as part of the bereavement provision, also available from the first day of employment.
• The miscarriage element of the bereavement payment and the day one right for parental bereavement payments apply only to claimants gainfully employed in Northern Ireland and for whom an employer makes Class 1 National Insurance contributions.
• Payments made under these distinct NI entitlements (miscarriage payments and the day one right for parental bereavement payments) must be reported and accounted for separately.

Important note

We are still waiting for the relevant legislation to be updated. At the time of writing, no further information is available. This article will be updated when more details are published.