UK Maternity & Paternity Pay Calculator

You need to have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks by the end of the qualifying week, which is the 15th week before the week your baby is due, and still be employed in it. Your average weekly earnings also need to be at least £129, the Lower Earnings Limit for 2026/27. You must tell your employer at least 15 weeks before the due week and give them proof you’re pregnant, usually the MATB1 form from your midwife or doctor. If you don’t qualify, your employer should tell you why, and you may be able to get Maternity Allowance instead.

Your employer takes your gross pay over a set 8 weeks, called the relevant period, which ends with your last payday before the end of the qualifying week. Overtime, bonuses and commission paid in those weeks all count. If you’re paid monthly, they average roughly two months’ pay and convert it to a weekly figure. A pay rise that’s backdated into that period, or that comes later in your leave, means your SMP should be worked out again.

Usually on the day you choose to start your leave, which can be any day from 11 weeks before the week the baby is due. If you’re off sick with a pregnancy-related illness in the 4 weeks before the due week, your leave and pay start automatically the day after your first day off. If the baby arrives before your leave was due to start, they start the day after the birth. You have to take at least 2 weeks off after the birth, or 4 if you work in a factory.

It’s a benefit from the DWP for people who don’t qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay, including the self-employed and people who recently changed jobs. You need to have been employed or self-employed for at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the due week, and earned £30 a week or more in at least 13 of them. It pays the lower of £194.32 or 90% of your average weekly earnings for up to 39 weeks; if you’re self-employed and haven’t paid Class 2 National Insurance, the rate is £27 a week. You claim it from Jobcentre Plus, not your employer, and it isn’t taxed.

Up to 2 weeks of paternity leave, taken together or as two separate weeks, at any time in the 52 weeks after the birth. From 6 April 2026 paternity leave is a right from your first day in the job. Statutory Paternity Pay still needs 26 weeks with your employer by the end of the qualifying week and average earnings of at least £129 a week, and pays the lower of £194.32 or 90% of your average weekly earnings. Give your employer 28 days’ notice of the dates of each week you take.

The mother or adopter can end their maternity or adoption leave early and share what’s left with their partner: up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay between you, taken in turns or at the same time. Statutory Shared Parental Pay is the lower of £194.32 or 90% of average weekly earnings, the same as the flat-rate weeks of SMP. Each of you has to qualify in your own right, and you need to give your employers 8 weeks’ notice. This page doesn’t split the leave for you, but the weeks you give up are the unpaid and flat-rate weeks shown here.

Statutory Adoption Pay works the same way as SMP: 90% of your average weekly earnings for 6 weeks, then the lower of £194.32 or 90% for 33 weeks. Adoption leave of up to 52 weeks is a right from your first day. For the pay you need 26 weeks with your employer by the week you’re matched with the child. Within 7 days of being matched, tell your employer the date the child will be placed and when you want leave to start, and tell them at least 28 days before you want the pay to start. Leave can start up to 14 days before the child comes to live with you. If you’re adopting as a couple, only one of you can take adoption pay; the other can choose “I’m the partner of someone adopting” to see their paternity pay.

Yes. Statutory Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay are paid through payroll, so Income Tax and National Insurance come off them like normal pay, along with any student loan repayments. Because you earn less over the tax year of your leave, you often pay less tax than usual and may get some back through your payslips. Maternity Allowance is different: it’s a benefit and isn’t taxed.

While you’re on paid leave, which is normally the first 39 weeks, your employer has to keep paying into your workplace pension as if you were on your normal pay. Your own contributions are based on what you’re actually paid, so they usually fall. In unpaid weeks contributions normally stop, unless your contract or scheme says otherwise. Your holiday also keeps building up through all 52 weeks.

Keeping in touch (KIT) days let you work up to 10 days during maternity or adoption leave, for training, a meeting or a normal day’s work, without ending your leave or losing your statutory pay for that week. On shared parental leave you each get up to 20 extra days, called SPLIT days. Both are optional for you and your employer, and the pay is whatever you agree; this page assumes a normal day’s pay unless you enter something else. You can’t work in the 2 weeks after the birth.

You never have to repay statutory pay itself. Many employers’ own schemes, though, say you must go back to work for a set time, often 3 to 6 months, or repay the extra they paid on top of statutory pay. Check your contract or staff handbook before you decide. Most schemes include statutory pay, so in each week you get the higher of the scheme or SMP rather than both; choose “On top of statutory pay” only if your scheme says so.

It works out statutory pay at 2026/27 rates for one job. It doesn’t split shared parental leave, cover neonatal care leave and pay, surrogacy or adoption from overseas, or work out pay from more than one employer (each one may pay you SMP separately). It assumes your average pay is your normal pay and that the baby arrives on the due date, and it doesn’t estimate tax on what you’re paid. If you’re self-employed, look at Maternity Allowance rather than SMP. Leave rules in Northern Ireland can differ slightly from those in Great Britain.