Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay for an agency temp: £194.32 or 90% for up to 2 weeks, and the 26-week test worked on one date

A temp rings the desk to say their child has died and they will not be in. The consultant's first job is to be kind. Payroll's job comes a day or two later: what does the law give this person, and when? The answer is a rate, a count of weeks and a calendar, and GOV.UK sets it out on two short pages. Whether an agency temp counts as an "employee" for it, those pages do not say, and this guide marks where that line sits.

What GOV.UK says about leave and pay

Parental Bereavement Leave is 2 weeks from the first day of employment for each child who has died or was stillborn (after 24 weeks of pregnancy). It can be taken as 2 weeks together, 2 separate weeks, or only one week, and it "must finish within 56 weeks" of the death or stillbirth. The pay is "£194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower)". The page does not give a tax year for that figure, so check it against your payroll software before quoting it.

Where the cap bites

The two numbers cross at £194.32 divided by 0.9, which is £215.91 a week. Below that the temp gets 90% of their average. Above it they get the flat £194.32.

This is our arithmetic, before any rounding your software applies. For the £300 temp: 2 x £194.32 is £388.64, and 2 x £300.00 is £600.00, so the gap is £211.36. Above £215.91 a week the pay stops rising, so the higher the earnings, the bigger the gap. Payments are made with tax and National Insurance deducted, per the page, so the amount reaching the bank is lower again.

The tests, and the dates for one case

For leave, the eligibility page asks only that the person be classed as an employee; length of service does not matter. For pay there are four conditions:

1. continuously employed for at least 26 weeks up to the end of the "relevant week";
2. still employed on the day the child dies or is stillborn;
3. average earnings of at least £129 a week before tax, over an 8-week period (8 x £129 is £1,032);
4. the correct notice and information, which sit on a how-to-claim page I did not read.

The relevant week is the week ending with a Saturday immediately before the week of the death. Take a death on Tuesday 10 November 2026. That week runs Sunday 8 to Saturday 14 November, so the relevant week is the one ending Saturday 7 November 2026. Counting 26 whole weeks back from the end of that Saturday (182 days) the period starts on Sunday 10 May 2026. On that reading, a temp whose first day with the agency was after 10 May 2026 misses the pay test, though not the leave. I have taken "continuously employed" to run from a start on that Sunday; confirm the day your payroll uses.

The 56-week window for the same death: 56 weeks is 392 days, so leave must finish by Tuesday 7 December 2027. Two weeks taken now, or one week now and one next spring, both fit.

What the pages do not say

GOV.UK does not mention agency workers on either page, or how a gap between assignments affects "continuously employed". I have not read the statutory rules or the guidance for employers, so I have not worked a case with a gap, and I have not read the how-to-claim page, so the notice rules are not covered here. Northern Ireland has different eligibility for bereavements from 6 April 2026 and is not worked here. Where a temp may fail the pay test, payroll should say so plainly and early, and check the agency's own treatment before telling them they do not qualify.

What to collect, gently

• Date of the death or stillbirth. Everything else is counted from it.
• First day with the agency, and any gaps since. This is the continuity evidence.
• Average weekly earnings over the 8 weeks your payroll uses. Without it the 90% figure is a guess.
• Which weeks they want to take. One, two together, or two separate, inside the 56 weeks.

The same continuity question sits behind statutory maternity pay for agency temps and statutory paternity pay, and the question of who pays also arises with statutory sick pay.

Overlyft builds AI staff who join your payroll team and, when a temp reports a bereavement, work out the relevant week, the 26-week start date and the two-week figure from the payroll record, then queue a draft reply for a person to check, soften and approve.

This is general information, not payroll or legal advice. Check GOV.UK and your payroll software before you confirm entitlement.