Unpaid Parental Leave: Rights and Notice

Unpaid parental leave is a statutory right that lets each parent take up to 18 weeks off work to look after a child, per parent, per child, up until the child's 18th birthday¹. It is usually unpaid, and it is a different right from shared parental leave, maternity leave and paternity leave².

The rules changed on 6 April 2026. Before that date you needed to have worked for your employer for one year to qualify. From 6 April 2026 that requirement was removed and parental leave became a day one right³. You still need to be an employee with parental responsibility for a child under 18.

How much you can take in one go is limited. Parental leave can normally only be taken in blocks of a week, up to four weeks a year, though your employer may be more flexible³. You must give at least 21 days' notice to take it³.

Unpaid parental leave: up to 18 weeks per parent, per child

The entitlement is 18 weeks for each parent and for each child, and it does not have to be used in one stretch. It runs alongside the child's childhood rather than being tied to the first year, so it can be drawn on at any point up to the child's 18th birthday¹.

Because it is per parent and per child, two parents each have their own 18 weeks for the same child, and a parent with more than one child has a separate 18 weeks for each of them¹. The entitlement does not reset if you change employer: what carries over is how much of the 18 weeks you have already used for that child.

There is a separate, smaller right that sits alongside shared parental leave. You can take up to four weeks' parental leave at the end of your shared parental leave without affecting your right to return to your job⁸. That is a distinct protection, not an extra 18 weeks.

Parental leave is not the only unpaid family leave. Fathers or partners can take up to 52 weeks of unpaid bereaved partner's paternity leave if the mother or primary adopter dies, taken within 52 weeks of the child's birth or adoption placement⁴. From 6 April 2026 that entitlement begins for fathers and partners³.

Who qualifies now that it is a day one right

The change on 6 April 2026 removed the one year service requirement, so parental leave is now available from the first day of a new job³. Before that date, you needed to have worked for your employer for one year to qualify⁹.

To use the right you need to be an employee and to have parental responsibility for a child under 18. The entitlement is per parent, per child, so it applies to mothers and fathers, and to same sex partners and civil partners who have parental responsibility⁴.

It is worth separating parental leave from the other family leave rights, because the qualifying conditions differ:

• Paternity leave: up to two weeks' paid leave for fathers or the mother's partner, where the qualifying conditions are met¹.
• Shared parental leave: up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay, shared between parents during the baby's first year¹⁰.
• Bereaved partner's paternity leave: up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave where the mother or primary adopter dies⁴.
• Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay: payable for a maximum of two weeks, consecutively or as separate weeks, and it must end within 56 weeks of the child's death or stillbirth¹¹.

Shared parental leave is not open to single parents, who cannot qualify for it². Self-employed parents are also outside it: a self-employed mother claiming Maternity Allowance is not entitled to shared parental leave or Statutory Shared Parental Pay, and self-employed fathers and partners cannot take them either¹². Employees and workers, including agency workers, casual workers and freelance staff paid through PAYE with tax and National Insurance deducted at source, can qualify for Statutory Shared Parental Pay².

How much you can take each year and in what blocks

The annual limit is normally four weeks, taken in blocks of a week, and the total across the child's childhood cannot exceed 18 weeks³. Your employer can agree to be more flexible than the weekly block rule, but is not obliged to³.

The block rule is where parental leave differs most sharply from shared parental leave. Shared parental leave and Statutory Shared Parental Pay must be taken in blocks of one week². You have the right to take shared parental leave in three separate blocks, though your employer can agree to more⁸. You can also book up to three separate blocks of shared parental leave even if you are not sharing the leave with your partner¹³.

Paternity leave has its own shape: you can take either one week or two consecutive weeks, but not odd days¹¹. If you are at work during a week, your employer cannot pay you Statutory Paternity Pay for that week¹¹.

There is also a limit on how much you can work during shared parental leave without ending it. You can work for your employer for up to 20 shared-parental-leave-in-touch days during your shared parental leave, per parent taking it².

Giving notice: at least 21 days

You must give at least 21 days' notice to take parental leave³. Notice should set out the dates you want, and an employer that cannot accommodate them can postpone the leave to another agreed time rather than refuse it outright.

The notice rules for the other family leave rights are longer, and mixing them up is a common source of disputes:

If you are moving from maternity leave into shared parental leave, the curtailment notice is the step that creates the shared leave: you must give at least eight weeks' notice to end your maternity leave at a future date, specified in your notice².

Shared parental leave and pay must be taken within a year of the birth if you returned to work early and want to take more leave³. From April 2026, fathers and partners can take shared parental leave at any time up to 52 weeks from the birth, before or after paternity leave².

Unpaid leave and your money

Parental leave is usually unpaid, so the household budget has to absorb the weeks without pay². What happens to your pension depends on the type of unpaid leave and your contract.

For unpaid maternity leave, your employer still has to make pension contributions in the first 26 weeks of your leave, and afterwards only if it is in your contract¹⁵. More generally, if you are not getting paid during maternity leave, your employer does not have to make pension contributions unless your contract provides for it, though you may be able to make contributions yourself¹⁶. If you take 52 weeks of Statutory Maternity Leave, the last 13 weeks are unpaid¹⁷.

National Insurance is the other thing to watch. If you take unpaid maternity leave you can get class 3 NI credits if you are claiming Child Benefit; those credits count for pension purposes but not for contribution-based benefits such as Employment and Support Allowance¹⁸.

Where money is tight, there is help outside the workplace. Universal Credit may help with paying for childcare²⁰. If you have unreimbursed work expenses, speaking to your work coach may allow you to offset these against your Universal Credit payment²¹.

If you have unreimbursed work expenses, speaking to your work coach may let you offset these against your Universal Credit payment²¹. Child maintenance is paid when one of the parents does not live with the child, and paying parents through the Child Maintenance Service are charged a fee even if they miss a payment¹⁴.

Where unpaid parental leave can go wrong

The main risks are practical rather than legal. Because the leave is unpaid, the weeks you take reduce household income, and the pension position is weaker than during paid leave: employer contributions are guaranteed for the first 26 weeks of unpaid maternity leave and after that only if your contract says so¹⁵.

The second risk is notice. Turning up expecting to start parental leave without the 21 days' notice, or assuming the eight week shared parental leave notice applies to parental leave, can mean the leave is postponed³. An employer can postpone parental leave where the business would be disrupted, but the leave still has to be taken at another agreed time.

The third is the interaction with other leave. Shared parental leave and pay must be taken within a year of the birth if you returned to work early and want more leave³. If you are resigning, check your contract or maternity policy for any repayment clause: you can only be asked to repay occupational maternity pay if it was agreed before your leave or is stated in your employer's maternity policy, and any return period is usually three to six months¹⁹.

If you are pregnant or on maternity leave and facing redundancy, or you are having a baby and want to see how the pay and benefits fit together, the Having a Baby: Pay, Benefits and Costs guide covers the wider picture, and Shared Parental Leave and Pay sets out the paid alternative in detail.