NHS maternity pay

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

1. 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”
2. 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”
3. 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”
4. 13 weeks — “for the final 13 weeks, the employee will receive no pay”

Quoted from paragraph 15.21, which is the same in all four nations. 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.

Questions people ask

Do you get six months’ full pay on NHS maternity leave?

Not usually. The scheme pays full pay for weeks 1–8, then half pay plus statutory maternity pay for weeks 9–26 — twenty-six weeks, about six months, in all. Those later weeks only come to full pay if half your pay plus SMP is more than full pay, and the cap holds it there. On 2026/27 rates that happens below about £20,209.28 a year. Above it, weeks 9–26 are paid at less than full pay.

Do you get NHS maternity pay and SMP?

Yes, but for the first weeks the SMP is inside the NHS pay, not on top of it. Paragraph 15.21 pays full pay less any SMP for weeks 1–8, so the two together come to your full pay. Weeks 9–26 are half pay plus SMP, capped at full pay. Weeks 27–39 are SMP alone, and weeks 40–52 are unpaid.

Can NHS maternity pay be spread over 9 or 12 months?

The NHS part can, if you agree it with your employer first. Paragraph 15.22 allows occupational maternity pay to be paid in a different way, including “a fixed amount spread equally over the maternity leave period”. Statutory maternity pay is not part of that: it is paid in the weeks it falls due, so the spread amount comes with SMP on top while SMP lasts. The calculator above shows the occupational total and what it comes to a month, over the full leave and over the paid weeks. On the example salary of £32,073, the NHS part is £6,766.22: £563.85 a month over 12 months, or £751.80 over 9, before tax. One catch: if you later move to shared parental leave, 15.22 says your employer may need to recalculate, so an over- or underpayment can follow.

Do I have to go back to work after NHS maternity leave?

Only to keep the NHS part of the pay. To qualify, you tell your employer you intend to return to the same or another NHS employer for at least three months (15.15). If you then do not return within 15 months of the start of your leave, you can be asked to pay back the occupational pay — everything except the SMP (15.83) — though your employer can waive that where it would cause undue hardship or distress. If you know from the start that you will not go back, you are paid the equivalent of SMP instead (15.100). Either way, the 52 weeks of leave are yours (15.105).

If you do go back, you can ask to return on different hours. Paragraph 15.80 gives your employer a duty to make that happen wherever possible, and to give written reasons if it cannot.

Does a pay rise count while I am on maternity leave?

Yes. If a pay award or a move up a pay point takes effect before your paid leave starts, your maternity pay is worked out as if it had applied through the whole earnings period it is based on. If it takes effect during your paid leave, your pay goes up from that date. An award agreed late and backdated means it is worked out again on the same basis (15.23).

Does NHS maternity pay include enhancements?

Yes. Full pay is worked out with the average weekly earnings rules used for statutory maternity pay (15.23), so it rests on what you were actually paid before your leave, and paragraph 2.14 counts unsocial hours payments towards contractual maternity, adoption and shared parental pay. A run of nights before your leave began is in the figure. The calculator uses your salary; the note under its result says what that leaves out.

What are keeping in touch (KIT) days?

Up to ten days of work during maternity leave that neither end the leave nor extend it (15.70). They are by agreement — neither you nor your employer can insist (15.74) — and not in the two compulsory weeks after the birth (15.72). You are paid your basic daily rate for the hours worked, less the maternity pay for that day (15.75). Work one in the full-pay weeks and you get a day of paid leave back once you return; in the half-pay weeks, half a day. Part of a day counts as a whole one (15.76).

Do I build up annual leave on maternity leave?

Yes — paragraph 15.94 keeps your annual leave and bank holidays building up through paid and unpaid leave. NHS annual leave covers what happens when that comes to more than you can carry over.

The service that qualifies you, and the pay that counts

First, the rights that need no service at all. The leave is not conditional: paragraph 15.1 says “All employees will have the right to take 52 weeks of maternity and / or adoption leave”. It is the occupational pay that has a qualifying period.

The twelve months is reckonable service, not twelve months with your current employer. Paragraph 12.1 counts continuous previous service with any NHS employer, in the same sentence that covers redundancy, sick pay and annual leave. Somebody who moved trust at eleven months has not started again.

It is counted at one moment: the start of the 11th week before the week your baby is due (15.15). Enter your due date above and the card gives the day. A gap between NHS jobs of three months or less is ignored, though the gap itself does not count towards the twelve (15.107). A fixed-term or training contract that would end after that point is extended so you get the full 52 weeks (15.84). Under twelve months, you may still get statutory maternity pay (15.103) — set the second box above to “No” to see it.

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 work out adoption or shared parental leave, which have their own paragraphs; pay for 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.

The other parent’s leave is in the same section: NHS paternity leave is 2 weeks, at full pay after 12 months’ service with any NHS employer (15.113 and 15.114).

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.