NHS maternity pay calculator — 52 weeks, week by week

Maternity pay over 52 weeks

£32,073 a year · £616.79 a week
NHS occupational scheme · statutory rates 2026-27
Gross, before tax, National Insurance and pension

Total across 52 weeks

£16,509.44

against £32,073 for a year at work

What is paid, week by week
Weeks	A week	Why
1–8	£616.79	Full pay (SMP topped up by the employer)
9–26	£502.72	Half pay plus SMP
27–39	£194.32	SMP only
40–52	£0.00	Unpaid

Statutory maternity pay is 90% of average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks, then the lower of £194.32 and 90% — the flat rate is a cap, not the amount.
Average weekly earnings are taken here as the salary over 52. Your employer uses your actual earnings in a set period before the qualifying week, so overtime and unsocial hours in that window can raise it.

The cap almost nobody expects

Paragraph 15.21(ii) reads: half of full pay, plus any statutory maternity pay, “providing the total receivable does not exceed full pay”. Read quickly it sounds like a technicality. It is not.

Statutory maternity pay is capped at £194.32 a week. So if half your pay is less than that, half pay plus SMP comes to more than full pay — and the cap holds it at full pay. Anyone earning under about £20,209.28 a year is therefore paid in full for twenty-six weeks, not eight.

That threshold sits above no full-time Agenda for Change band and below a great many part-time contracts — so it is part-time staff, the people least able to absorb a bad estimate, whose maternity pay a quick calculation understates.

What the scheme actually is

8 weeks — “for the first eight weeks of absence the employee will receive full pay, less any statutory maternity pay or maternity allowance (including any dependants' allowances) receivable”
18 weeks — “for the next 18 weeks the employee will receive half of full pay, plus any Statutory Maternity Pay or maternity allowance (including any dependents' allowances) receivable, providing the total receivable does not exceed full pay”
13 weeks — “for the next 13 weeks, the employee will receive any Statutory Maternity Pay or maternity allowance that they are entitled to under the statutory scheme”
13 weeks — “for the final 13 weeks, the employee will receive no pay”

Quoted from paragraph 15.21. It applies where the employee intends to return to work; staff who do not are covered by 15.100 onwards and are not worked out here.

Statutory maternity pay is not a flat rate

The first 6 weeks are 90% of your average weekly earnings. The remaining 33 are the lower of £194.32 and that same 90% — so the headline figure is a ceiling, not the amount. Anyone earning under about £215.91 a week receives 90% throughout.

Below the Lower Earnings Limit of £129.00 a week there is no statutory maternity pay at all. Maternity Allowance from the DWP applies instead — a different scheme with different rules, which this page does not work out.

What this does not cover

Gross pay only: tax, National Insurance and pension still come off, and the take-home calculator handles those. It does not cover adoption or shared parental leave, which have their own paragraphs; Keeping in Touch days; or staff not intending to return. Local schemes can be more generous than the handbook (15.13), so your employer's own policy governs if it differs.

Average weekly earnings are taken here as your salary over 52 weeks. Your employer uses your actual earnings across a set period before the qualifying week, so overtime and unsocial hours falling in that window can raise the statutory element.