Maternity Pay Calculator

1. Salaried on £32,000, first baby, leave at the earliest date

Due 15 March 2027, monthly paid, employed since January 2024, leave starting 27 Dec 2026. Average weekly earnings of £615.38 give £553.85 a week for 6 weeks (£3,323.08), then £194.32 a week for 33 weeks (£6,412.56) — £9,735.64 gross. Pay ends 25 Sept 2027 and unpaid leave runs to 25 Dec 2027 if she takes the full 52 weeks.

The number that matters here is not the headline total. Pay falls by £359.53 a week on 6 Feb 2027, more than a month before the baby is due, and stays there for 33 weeks. The budgeting question is that flat stretch, not the first six weeks.

2. Part-time on £11,000, where 90% beats the flat rate

Due 4 November 2026, about 16 hours a week, employed since 2022, leave starting 16 Aug 2026. Average weekly earnings of £211.54 sit comfortably above the £129.00 threshold, so she qualifies — but 90% of them is £190.38, below the standard rate. She is paid £190.38 a week for all 39 weeks: £1,142.31 in weeks 1–6, £6,282.69 in weeks 7–39, £7,425.00 in total.

There is no week-7 cliff at this level of pay at all. A calculator that hard-codes £194.32 into the second tranche would tell her £7,554.87 — £129.87 more than she will actually receive.

3. Self-employed, no SMP, falling back to Maternity Allowance

Due 15 March 2027, self-employed three years, Class 2 National Insurance paid for 30 of the last 66 weeks, profits around £24,000. There is no employer, so there is no SMP. Maternity Allowance pays the full £194.32 a week for 39 weeks — £7,578.48, completely flat. She can claim from 26 weeks pregnant on form MA1, and payment can start from 27 Dec 2026 at the earliest.

An employed colleague on the same £24,000 would get £8,904.87 — £1,326.39 more — purely because SMP front-loads 6 weeks at 90% and Maternity Allowance has no equivalent tranche. Reaching the full rate also depends on that 13-of-66 Class 2 record; without it the rate drops to £27.00 a week.

4. Employee just short of the 26-week service test

Due 4 November 2026, started the job 1 April 2026, salary £29,000. The qualifying week is 19 Jul 2026 – 25 Jul 2026. Continuous service by the end of it is 16 weeks — under the 26 required. No SMP, despite earning far above the £129.00 threshold. Her employer must issue form SMP1, and she claims Maternity Allowance instead.

The trap is the measurement date. Service is tested at the qualifying week — 15 weeks before the due date — not at the birth and not at the leave start. By 4 Nov 2026 she will have been there over seven months, which feels like it should be enough and is not. Maternity Allowance is more forgiving here: its 26-in-66 test counts work across all employers.

5. Enhanced occupational scheme against bare statutory

Due 15 March 2027, salary £38,000, employer scheme of 8 weeks at full pay then 18 weeks at half pay plus SMP capped at normal full pay, then statutory for the balance. Average weekly earnings are £730.77. Statutory-only would pay £10,358.71 across the 39 weeks. The scheme pays £18,447.00 over the same period — £8,088.28 more, almost all of it landing in the first 26 weeks.

Front-loading on that scale changes the decision about when to return. It also usually comes with a condition: most enhanced schemes require you to stay for a set period after returning or repay the enhancement. Statutory Maternity Pay is never repayable, so read which part of the package is which before committing to a return date. Enter your own scheme’s weeks in the calculator above rather than assuming this shape.

How much is statutory maternity pay in 2026/27?

Statutory Maternity Pay runs for 39 weeks in two tranches. The first 6 weeks pay 90% of your average weekly earnings with no upper limit, so a higher salary genuinely means more money during that stretch. The remaining 33 weeks pay £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. That standard rate rose from £187.18 on 6 April 2026, which is why figures published before then understate the total. On a £32,000 salary, average weekly earnings are £615.38, giving £3,323.08 across the first 6 weeks and £6,412.56 across the next 33 — £9,735.64 gross in total. Nothing is paid for the final 13 weeks of the 52-week leave entitlement unless your employer runs its own scheme or you add accrued holiday. The whole amount passes through PAYE, so income tax and National Insurance come off before it reaches your account.

How much do you need to earn to qualify for maternity pay?

You need average weekly earnings of at least £129.00 for the 2026/27 tax year, measured across the eight-week relevant period rather than taken from your headline salary. That threshold is the National Insurance Lower Earnings Limit, £6,708 a year. Clearing it is only half the test: you also need 26 weeks of continuous employment with the same employer, continuing into the qualifying week. Be careful with figures you find elsewhere. Several widely used maternity calculators still show £123 or £120 a week, which are thresholds from earlier tax years, and gov.uk's own employer-facing guidance has not caught up either — the citizen-facing eligibility page is the one that matches the current uprating. If your earnings fall below £129.00, your employer cannot pay SMP and must give you form SMP1, which is what you use to claim Maternity Allowance instead.

What is the qualifying week for maternity pay?

The qualifying week is the 15th week before your expected week of childbirth, and it is the single date that decides almost everything about your claim. Your expected week of childbirth is the Sunday-to-Saturday week that contains your due date, not the due date itself, so the count starts from that Sunday. For a due date of 15 March 2027, the expected week of childbirth begins on Sunday 14 Mar 2027 and the qualifying week is 29 Nov 2026 – 5 Dec 2026. Three separate tests are measured against it. Your 26 weeks of continuous employment must be complete by the end of it. Your average weekly earnings are measured over the eight weeks running back from the last payday on or before it. And your notice to your employer is due by the end of it. Get the qualifying week wrong and all three answers move with it.

When do I have to tell my employer I'm pregnant?

At least 15 weeks before your due date, which in practice means by the end of your qualifying week. At that point you tell your employer the due date and the date you want your leave to start. Separately you must give at least 28 days' notice of the date you want Statutory Maternity Pay to begin, and 28 days' notice again if you later move your leave start date. Your employer then has 28 days to write confirming your leave start and end dates, and 28 days to confirm how much SMP you will get and when it starts and stops. The proof is form MATB1, which a midwife or GP issues no more than 20 weeks before your due date and which must reach your employer within 21 days of your SMP start date. Changing your return date later needs 8 weeks' notice.

What can I claim if I'm not eligible for SMP?

Maternity Allowance, paid by the Department for Work and Pensions rather than by your employer. Your employer must give you form SMP1 explaining why SMP was refused, and that form supports the Maternity Allowance claim you make on form MA1. If you are employed or recently stopped working, Maternity Allowance pays £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is less, for up to 39 weeks. Self-employed claimants get between £27.00 and £194.32 a week depending on their Class 2 National Insurance record, reaching the full rate with contributions for at least 13 of the 66 weeks before the baby is due. Unpaid work in a spouse's or civil partner's business pays £27.00 a week for 14 weeks. The qualifying test is broader than SMP's: 26 weeks of work in the 66 before the due date, across any number of employers.

Is maternity pay taxed?

Statutory Maternity Pay is treated as earnings, so income tax and National Insurance come off through PAYE exactly as they do on your normal wages, and it lands on a payslip like any other pay. What surprises people is which way the arithmetic usually runs. Your Personal Allowance is spread evenly across the tax year, but 33 of your 39 paid weeks are at £194.32, far below what you normally earn. Many people on maternity leave therefore overpay tax across the year and are owed a refund, issued either after the year ends or through an adjusted tax code once they return to work. Maternity Allowance behaves differently: gov.uk lists it among the tax-free state benefits, so no income tax or National Insurance is due on it — although it still counts as income for means-tested support such as Universal Credit.

When is the earliest I can start maternity leave?

11 weeks before your expected week of childbirth. Because that week begins on the Sunday of the week containing your due date, the earliest start is always a Sunday — for a 15 March 2027 due date it is 27 December 2026. Starting at the earliest possible date is rarely the best financial move. Your 39 paid weeks begin when your leave begins, not when the baby arrives, so an early start spends paid weeks before the birth and brings forward the date the money stops. In that example, starting on 27 Dec 2026 ends your 6 weeks at 90% on 6 Feb 2027, more than a month before the baby is due, and ends pay altogether on 25 Sept 2027. Two events can override the date you pick regardless of your plans, both covered in the common mistakes above.

How long is maternity leave in the UK?

52 weeks, split into 26 weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave followed by 26 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave. Every employee gets the full entitlement from their first day in the job — unlike maternity pay, leave itself carries no length-of-service test. The catch is that only 39 of those weeks carry statutory pay, so the last 13 are unpaid unless your employer runs an enhanced scheme or you attach accrued annual leave to the end. You do not have to take all 52. You can return whenever you like after the compulsory period — 2 weeks after the birth for most people, 4 for factory workers — provided you give 8 weeks' notice of the date. Holiday keeps accruing across all 52 weeks including the unpaid stretch, which is why many people finish their leave with several weeks of paid holiday banked.

Can I work during maternity leave without losing my pay?

Yes, for up to 10 keeping-in-touch days. These let you go in for training, a team day, a handover or simply to stay in the loop without ending your maternity leave or losing that week's Statutory Maternity Pay. They are voluntary in both directions under regulation 12A of the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999: your employer cannot require you to come in, and you cannot insist on being given them. You should be paid for the day at a rate agreed with your employer, which must at minimum cover the National Minimum Wage for the hours worked, and your employer may offset that payment against your SMP for the week. If you move onto Shared Parental Leave, a separate allowance of 20 SPLIT days applies to that leave, on top of any keeping-in-touch days you have already used.

How does shared parental leave affect maternity pay?

Shared Parental Leave redistributes your entitlement rather than adding to it, which is the part most couples miss. Up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay can be shared with your partner, but only by cutting your own maternity leave and pay by the same amount first. Gov.uk's own worked example makes the arithmetic plain: end maternity leave at 22 weeks and you release 30 weeks of Shared Parental Leave and 17 weeks of Shared Parental Pay to divide between you. The ceilings of 50 and 37 exist because the compulsory 2 weeks after the birth can never be converted. Shared Parental Pay is £194.32 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, with no tranche at 90% for whoever takes it — so converting your first 6 weeks costs you money.