Pillar Guide · Updated July 2026
UK Flexible Working Requests: A Practical Guide for 2026/27
Since April 2024, every UK employee has had the right to request flexible working from their very first day in a job — a significant change from the previous 26-week qualifying period. This pillar guide explains what counts as flexible working, how many requests can be made and how often, the two-month decision deadline and mandatory consultation requirement, the eight statutory grounds an employer can rely on to refuse a request, how appeals and tribunal claims work, and how a successful request changes the employment contract.
The Day-One Right
Since 6 April 2024, the statutory right to request flexible working applies from an employee's very first day of employment, following the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 and accompanying regulations. Previously, employees had to accrue 26 weeks of continuous service before qualifying — a barrier that particularly disadvantaged people needing flexibility to accept a new job in the first place, such as parents managing childcare or people with fluctuating health conditions.
The right remains a right to request rather than a right to receive: employers must consider requests reasonably and can only refuse on specified business grounds, but there is no guarantee any particular request will be granted. It applies to employees, not to agency workers or genuinely self-employed contractors, though employees on zero-hours or fixed-term contracts qualify from day one like any other employee.
What Counts as Flexible Working
Flexible working covers any change to the hours, timing or location of work. Common examples include part-time hours, compressed hours (the same total hours worked over fewer days), flexitime (variable start and finish times around agreed core hours), job sharing, remote or hybrid working, term-time only working, and a four-day week (either genuinely reduced hours or the same hours compressed into four days). The statutory right is not limited to a fixed list of arrangements — an employee can request essentially any change, and it is for the employer to assess the specific proposal against the needs of the business.
How Many Requests and How Often
From April 2024, employees can make up to two statutory flexible working requests in any 12-month period, up from one previously. Each request must be made in writing, specifying the change sought and the proposed start date. Employees are no longer required, since the 2024 reforms, to explain what effect the change might have on the employer or suggest how that impact could be managed — though including this information voluntarily can still strengthen a request by demonstrating the employee has thought through practical implications.
The Two-Month Process
The employer must consider and respond to the request, including dealing with any appeal, within two months of receiving it, unless a longer period is agreed between employer and employee — shortened from the previous three-month limit as part of the 2024 reforms.
A significant procedural addition from the same reforms is a duty to consult: before refusing a request, the employer must discuss it with the employee and consider whether there are alternative arrangements that could work, rather than simply rejecting the request outright without any dialogue. Failing to consult before refusal can itself form the basis of a successful tribunal claim, separate from whether the underlying refusal grounds were valid.
Statutory Refusal Grounds
An employer can only refuse a flexible working request by relying on one or more of eight specified business grounds:
- The burden of additional costs
- An inability to reorganise work among existing staff
- An inability to recruit additional staff
- A detrimental impact on quality
- A detrimental impact on performance
- A detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand
- Insufficient work available for the periods the employee proposes to work
- Planned structural changes to the business
These eight grounds have not changed under the 2024 reforms — what changed is the procedural framework around them (day-one eligibility, two requests a year, a faster two-month deadline, and mandatory consultation before refusal), not the substantive test an employer applies when deciding whether to grant or refuse a request.
Appeals and Tribunal Claims
There is no separate statutory appeal stage built into the flexible working legislation itself, but ACAS guidance recommends employers offer one as good practice, and many company policies include a formal appeal step. Where a request is handled unlawfully — the employer failed to consult before refusing, missed the statutory time limit, based a refusal on incorrect facts, or the decision amounts to discrimination (for example, disproportionately refusing requests linked to childcare in a way that indirectly disadvantages women) — the employee can bring an employment tribunal claim, generally within three months less one day of the decision, after completing mandatory ACAS early conciliation first.
Effect on Pay and Contract
The pay effect depends entirely on the specific change agreed. Reducing contracted hours — moving to genuine part-time working, or a shorter four-day week with fewer total hours — typically reduces pay proportionately, since pay is usually linked to hours worked. Compressed hours, flexitime, remote or hybrid working, and job-sharing arrangements that preserve the same total contracted hours generally do not affect pay, since only the timing or location of work changes, not the total amount worked.
A successful statutory request results in a permanent contract variation unless both parties agree to a trial period or a temporary arrangement instead — an employee should not assume they can simply revert to the previous pattern later without agreement or a fresh request within the two-per-year limit, so it is worth being explicit about whether the change is intended to be permanent from the outset.
Flexible Working vs Reasonable Adjustments
The statutory flexible working process applies to all employees, subject to the eight business refusal grounds. Separately, under the Equality Act 2010, employers owe disabled employees a distinct duty to make reasonable adjustments where a workplace practice puts them at a substantial disadvantage, which can include changes to hours, location or duties that overlap with a flexible working request. The reasonable adjustment duty is generally a stronger legal obligation without the same business-ground refusal test, and a failure to make one can itself amount to unlawful discrimination — so a disabled employee may benefit from pursuing both routes rather than relying solely on the standard flexible working process.