How Much Maternity Pay Will You Get in the UK 2026

Hundreds of thousands of women take maternity leave in the UK each year, and one of the most common sources of stress during pregnancy is simply not knowing how much money will actually come in while you are off work. Our maternity pay calculator works out your week-by-week and month-by-month figures based on your own salary and your employer's policy, and this guide explains exactly how those numbers are calculated, from the statutory minimum through to enhanced employer schemes and Maternity Allowance for the self-employed.

Statutory Maternity Pay basics

Statutory Maternity Pay, usually shortened to SMP, is the legal minimum most employers must pay to eligible employees during maternity leave. For 2026/27, it is structured in two stages. The first 6 weeks are paid at 90% of your average weekly earnings, with no upper limit, so higher earners genuinely receive 90% of their normal pay during this period. The remaining 33 weeks are paid at the lower of a flat weekly rate, currently £187.18, or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is less. In practice, this means most people move onto the flat rate once their initial 6 higher-rate weeks are over, since 90% of their normal earnings usually works out higher than the flat rate once weekly pay exceeds around £208.

To qualify for SMP, you generally need at least 26 weeks of continuous employment with the same employer, calculated up to the end of the qualifying week, which is the 15th week before your baby is due. You also need average weekly earnings of at least £125, in line with the Lower Earnings Limit used elsewhere in the National Insurance system. Average weekly earnings are usually calculated using an 8-week reference period ending around the qualifying week, so a recent pay rise or bonus can genuinely increase your SMP entitlement if it falls within that window, while a recent drop in hours can reduce it. Our take-home pay calculator can help you see what any of these gross figures look like once tax and National Insurance are taken into account.

To see how this looks in practice, take someone earning £500 a week, on a statutory-only maternity policy, taking their full 52-week entitlement. The first 6 weeks are paid at 90% of £500, which is £450 a week, totalling £2,700. The next 33 weeks are paid at the standard £187.18 rate, since it is lower than 90% of their earnings, adding a further £6,176.94. That brings their total statutory maternity pay across the full 39 paid weeks to around £8,876.94, with the final 13 weeks of their 52-week leave unpaid. Our maternity pay calculator runs this same calculation instantly using your own salary, leave length and start date, including a month-by-month breakdown.

You need to tell your employer that you are pregnant, your expected due date, and when you want your maternity leave to start, by the end of the 15th week before your baby is due, the same qualifying week used to assess your SMP eligibility. Your employer can ask for this in writing, and will usually confirm your leave and pay dates back to you within 28 days. You can change your planned start date later if you give at least 28 days' notice of the new date, which gives some flexibility if your circumstances change or your baby arrives earlier or later than expected. If you go into labour before your chosen start date, your maternity leave and pay generally begin automatically from the day after the birth.

What happens after week 39

Maternity leave and maternity pay are not the same length, and this catches a lot of people out. You are entitled to take up to 52 weeks of maternity leave in total, split into 26 weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave and 26 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave, regardless of how long you have worked for your employer. Statutory Maternity Pay, however, only covers the first 39 weeks, leaving the final 13 weeks unpaid unless your employer's own scheme extends pay further.

During unpaid maternity leave, you continue to accrue statutory annual leave in the normal way, which many people choose to take immediately before returning to work, effectively pushing their actual return date back further while still being paid for those extra weeks. Employers can also invite you in for up to 10 Keeping in Touch days during your leave, paid at your normal daily rate on top of any maternity pay, without it affecting your SMP or ending your leave, which can help ease the transition back to work and keep you connected with what has changed at work.

Some people choose to end their maternity leave earlier than 52 weeks and return to work sooner, which is entirely allowed, subject to giving your employer the correct notice period, usually 8 weeks. Others extend into Shared Parental Leave, which lets eligible parents split the remaining leave and pay between them after the first 2 weeks following birth, giving families more flexibility over who is at home and when, rather than the whole 52 weeks defaulting to one parent.

Enhanced maternity pay from employers

Many employers offer more generous maternity pay than the statutory minimum, particularly in the public sector, banking, larger technology companies and some parts of retail. A common structure is full salary for a set number of weeks, commonly somewhere between 6 and 26 weeks depending on the employer, dropping to the standard SMP rate for the remaining statutory weeks, then becoming unpaid for any leave beyond week 39. Some employers instead offer full or half pay throughout a longer stretch, so structures vary considerably and there is no single standard across UK employers.

The best way to find your own entitlement is to check your contract of employment or staff handbook directly, since enhanced schemes are a matter of company policy rather than law, and can also come with conditions attached, such as a requirement to return to work for a minimum period afterwards or repay some of the enhanced portion if you do not return at all. Our maternity pay calculator lets you model an enhanced scheme directly, by entering how many weeks of full pay your employer offers before it switches to the standard statutory rate.

When reading your maternity policy, look specifically at whether SMP is included within the enhanced figure or paid on top of it as an extra amount, since wording varies between employers and can make a real difference to your total. It is also worth checking whether the enhanced element counts as pensionable pay, since this affects how much your employer contributes to your pension while you are on leave, and whether there is a minimum length of service required before the enhanced scheme applies, as some employers only offer it once you have been employed for a year or more.

Maternity Allowance for self-employed and others

Not everyone qualifies for Statutory Maternity Pay. If you are self-employed, have recently changed jobs and do not meet the 26-week continuous employment rule, or do not meet the minimum earnings threshold, Maternity Allowance is usually the alternative to look at. It is paid directly by the Department for Work and Pensions rather than an employer, at a similar weekly rate to SMP, for up to 39 weeks.

For self-employed women, eligibility for Maternity Allowance depends on your Class 2 National Insurance contributions record over the relevant test period, rather than on continuous employment with a single employer, which reflects the more varied way self-employed income and work patterns tend to look. Our self-employed tax calculator and self-employed tax guide can help you understand your wider tax position while planning around a period of reduced or no trading income during maternity leave. It is worth applying for Maternity Allowance as early as possible, since, like SMP, there are time limits on how far a claim can be backdated.

Maternity Allowance is generally simpler to work out than SMP, since it is a flat weekly payment rather than a two-stage calculation, though the exact amount can still depend on your earnings over your best 13 weeks in the test period if you are newly self-employed or have irregular income. Our self-employed tax guide covers Income Tax and National Insurance for the self-employed in full, which is useful background if you are trying to work out your likely income and Maternity Allowance position for the year ahead at the same time.

Tax and National Insurance on maternity pay

Both Statutory Maternity Pay and any enhanced maternity pay from your employer count as normal earnings for tax purposes, so Income Tax and National Insurance are deducted through PAYE in exactly the same way as your normal salary. Because your total income during maternity leave is often significantly lower than your normal annual salary, particularly if you take unpaid weeks towards the end of your leave, a noticeable portion of your maternity pay can fall within your tax-free Personal Allowance, reducing your effective tax rate for the year compared with a normal working year. Our income tax calculator can help you estimate your full-year tax position if your income changes significantly partway through the tax year because of maternity leave.

It is worth noting that tax is calculated across your whole tax year, not just during your maternity leave in isolation, so any tax already paid earlier in the year through your normal salary, plus tax on your maternity pay, are combined when working out your overall liability. If you return to work partway through the tax year, your payslips will usually adjust automatically through the PAYE system to reflect your combined annual income, though it is always worth checking your tax code is correct after a period of reduced income, using our take-home pay calculator to sense-check your net pay once you are back on your normal salary.

Planning financially for maternity leave

Since maternity pay drops significantly after the first 6 weeks, and can stop altogether after week 39, building a financial buffer before your leave starts makes a real practical difference. Many people start by working out the gap between their normal monthly take-home pay and their expected maternity pay for each stage of their leave, using a tool like our maternity pay calculator to see the shortfall month by month, then saving towards that gap in the months before their due date.

It is also worth thinking about your wider tax position for the year as a whole, not just your maternity pay in isolation. If your income drops significantly during part of the tax year and then returns to normal, your overall tax bill for the year is usually lower than a simple month-by-month estimate would suggest, since Income Tax is calculated on your total annual income rather than each month separately. Our income tax calculator can help you sense-check your likely annual tax position once you have an estimate of your combined salary and maternity pay for the year.

It is also worth reviewing regular outgoings before your leave starts, checking whether any subscriptions or costs can be paused, and confirming whether your partner has any entitlement to Paternity Leave or Shared Parental Leave, which can sometimes be used to extend paid family leave overall by rearranging how the combined entitlement is split between you. Our pregnancy weeks calculator and pregnancy due date calculator can help you map out exactly when your qualifying week and planned leave dates fall, which is often the first step in working out your SMP eligibility and timing your savings plan.

Returning to work considerations

You have a legal right to return to the same job after Ordinary Maternity Leave, or a similar job on the same terms if you return after Additional Maternity Leave and your original role is no longer available for a genuine reason. Many people also use the return to work as a natural point to request flexible working, such as reduced hours, compressed hours or hybrid working, which employers must consider seriously even though not every request can be granted.

You are also protected from redundancy during maternity leave and for a period after you return, which gives you priority over other employees for any suitable alternative role if your position is genuinely at risk of redundancy while you are away. If you are made redundant during or shortly after maternity leave and believe the timing is connected to your pregnancy or leave rather than a genuine business reason, this can amount to unlawful discrimination, and it is worth seeking advice from ACAS or a solicitor promptly, since time limits for bringing a claim are short.

Childcare costs are often the biggest new expense when returning to work, and it is worth researching Tax-Free Childcare and any employer-supported childcare schemes well before your return date, since some schemes take time to set up. If reduced hours are part of your return to work plan, our take-home pay calculator can help you see the effect on your net pay, giving you a clearer picture of whether the childcare costs are covered by your income after the change. If you are also weighing up a period of sickness alongside your return, our UK sick pay guide explains how Statutory Sick Pay works separately from maternity pay.

Whatever stage of your pregnancy or maternity leave you are planning around, our maternity pay calculator gives you a clear, personalised estimate to plan your finances around, rather than relying on rough rules of thumb.

Frequently asked questions