Maternity Pay and Leave in England, Wales and Scotland

Who this guide is for

Pregnant employees and new mothers in England, Wales or Scotland who want to know what maternity pay and leave they can get, how to claim them, and their rights while pregnant, on maternity leave and when going back to work.

What this guide does not cover

• Work in Northern Ireland: see the Northern Ireland guide.
• Paternity leave and pay: see our employee rights guide. Having a baby through surrogacy: see our surrogacy guide. Asking to work flexibly or part time: see our flexible working guide. Bereavement leave, and time off after a miscarriage: see our bereavement leave guide.
• Maternity Allowance for the self-employed, which depends on Class 2 National Insurance contributions. This guide does not cover it: check GOV.UK.
• How much compensation a tribunal can award: see our tribunal guide.

What the rules depend on

1. Are you an employee? Maternity leave is for employees, not workers. SMP depends on being taxed through PAYE, so agency workers can get it. If you pay tax through self-assessment you cannot get SMP, but you may get Maternity Allowance.
2. When is your baby due, and when did you start this job? These two dates decide the 26-week test for SMP.
3. What were your average earnings over the 8 weeks up to and including the qualifying week? SMP needs at least £129 a week. Maternity Allowance has its own, different test.
4. Has your job ended, or is it about to? If it ends after the start of the qualifying week and you qualify, you still get SMP. If it ends before the qualifying week, you cannot get SMP from that employer and Maternity Allowance may be the route.

"How much maternity pay will I get?"

SMP is paid for up to 39 weeks. For the first 6 weeks you get 90% of your average weekly earnings before tax. There is no upper limit on those 6 weeks.

For the next 33 weeks you get £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. This rate applies from 5 April 2026.

SMP is paid in the same way as your wages, for example weekly or monthly. Tax and National Insurance are deducted.

Your employer does not have to pay you for the last 13 weeks of maternity leave. A company maternity scheme can give you more leave or pay than the statutory amount, but never less.

SMP starts when your maternity leave starts. If you are off work with a pregnancy-related illness in the 4 weeks before the week your baby is due, it starts automatically.

"Do I qualify for SMP?"

You qualify for SMP if all of these apply:

• you have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks, continuing into the qualifying week, which is the 15th week before the week your baby is due;
• your average earnings were at least £129 a week over the 8 weeks up to and including the qualifying week;
• you are classed as employed for tax purposes, which includes employees and agency workers taxed through PAYE;
• you give your employer the right notice and proof that you are pregnant.

The 26-week test is decided by two dates: when your baby is due and when you started this job. It is not decided by how long you have worked there today.

Sickness, statutory leave and holiday do not break continuous employment.

If you are off sick and only get statutory sick pay in the 8 weeks up to and including the qualifying week, this may affect your right to SMP.

"How do I claim SMP?"

Tell your employer the day you want your SMP to start. Give them at least 28 days' notice, in writing if they ask for it.

Give your employer proof of the pregnancy within 21 days of your SMP start date, or as soon as possible if the baby is born early. This is a letter from your doctor or midwife, or your MATB1 certificate. Doctors and midwives give the MATB1 no more than 20 weeks before the due date. You will not get SMP without proof of when the baby is due.

Your employer must confirm within 28 days how much SMP you will get and when it will start and stop.

"My employer says I don't qualify, or is paying me the wrong amount"

If your employer decides you cannot get SMP, they must give you form SMP1 within 7 days of making that decision, explaining why. You may be able to get Maternity Allowance instead, and you send the SMP1 with that claim.

Ask your employer to explain your SMP if you think it is wrong. If you cannot sort it out with them, contact the HMRC Statutory Payment Dispute Team. HMRC can make a formal decision on whether you are entitled to SMP and how much.

Disputes about SMP are decided by HMRC. Disputes about maternity leave, dismissal or unfair treatment go to Acas and an employment tribunal.

"I'm leaving, being made redundant, or my employer is closing"

If you have qualified for SMP and then leave your job for any reason, including redundancy, your employer must still pay your SMP.

If your job ends before the start of the qualifying week, you cannot get SMP from that employer. Maternity Allowance may be the route.

If your employer stops trading, it must still pay any SMP you are owed. If your employer becomes insolvent after the start of the qualifying week, HMRC pays your SMP: contact HMRC.

If you start work for a new employer after the baby is born, and that employer did not employ you in the qualifying week, your SMP stops.

"Can I get Maternity Allowance?"

If you cannot get SMP, you may get Maternity Allowance from the government instead.

You can get Maternity Allowance for up to 39 weeks if, in the 66 weeks before your baby is due, you were employed or registered as self-employed for at least 26 weeks. If you were employed, you must also have earned (or been classed as earning) £30 a week or more in at least 13 of those weeks. The weeks do not have to be together.

You may still qualify if you have recently stopped working. It does not matter if you had different jobs or periods of unemployment.

If you were employed or have recently stopped working, Maternity Allowance is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is less, for up to 39 weeks. Unlike SMP, there is no first 6 weeks at 90% of earnings with no upper limit.

The £129 SMP earnings figure does not apply to Maternity Allowance. Maternity Allowance has its own test, set out above.

Claim on form MA1 from GOV.UK, with proof of the due date, and your SMP1 if your employer refused SMP. You can claim once you have been pregnant for 26 weeks. Payments can start 11 weeks before the week your baby is due.

"How much maternity leave do I get, and how do I take it?"

If you are an employee, you can take up to 52 weeks of Statutory Maternity Leave: 26 weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave and 26 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave. It does not matter how long you have worked there, how many hours you work or how much you are paid.

Workers who are not employees do not get Statutory Maternity Leave, but may still get SMP.

You do not have to take all 52 weeks, but you must take 2 weeks' leave after the birth, or 4 weeks if you work in a factory.

The earliest your leave can start is 11 weeks before the week your baby is due. It starts the day after the birth if the baby is early, and automatically if you are off work with a pregnancy-related illness in the 4 weeks before the week your baby is due.

By the end of the 15th week before the week your baby is due, tell your employer that you are pregnant, when the baby is due and when you want your leave to start. Your employer can ask for this in writing. Your employer must reply within 28 days and confirm the date you are due back.

To change your start date, give 28 days' notice before the new or the original start date.

During maternity leave you keep your employment rights, including pay rises, and you build up paid holiday as normal.

You can still get Statutory Maternity Leave and SMP if your baby is born early, is stillborn after the start of the 24th week of pregnancy, or dies after being born.

"Can I work during maternity leave?"

You can agree with your employer to work up to 10 keeping in touch days during your maternity leave. They need your employer's agreement, and you do not have to work during maternity leave.

Working part of a day counts as a full keeping in touch day. You can work up to 10 keeping in touch days without ending your maternity leave. You cannot work keeping in touch days in the 2 weeks after the birth. SMP is not paid for any week in which you do more work for your employer than this.

Agree the pay for keeping in touch days in advance.

"What are my rights when I go back?"

If you have taken 26 weeks' maternity leave or less, you have the right to go back to the same job.

If you have taken more than 26 weeks, you have the right to go back to the same job unless your employer has a genuine reason to offer you an alternative. The alternative must be suitable, appropriate and on the same terms.

To come back before the end of your 52 weeks, give your employer at least 8 weeks' notice of the date. If you give less, your employer can put your return back until 8 weeks have passed, but not past the end of your leave. To come back later than a date you already gave, give at least 8 weeks' notice before that date.

"I'm at risk of redundancy"

Your employer must not use your pregnancy or maternity leave as a reason to make you redundant.

If you are selected for redundancy during your protected period, your employer must offer you any suitable alternative vacancy as a priority, before other employees at risk.

Since 6 April 2024, the protected period starts when you tell your employer you are pregnant and ends 18 months after the date your baby is born. If your employer was not told the exact date of birth, it ends 18 months after the expected week of childbirth.

If you have a miscarriage within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, the protected period ends 2 weeks after the end of the pregnancy.

"I've been dismissed or treated badly"

It is against the law (Equality Act 2010) for your employer to treat you unfavourably for any reason connected to your pregnancy or maternity.

A dismissal because of pregnancy or maternity leave is automatically unfair. No minimum length of service is needed.

You can make a claim to an employment tribunal. Before most claims, you must notify Acas to start early conciliation. It is free. Your time limit is paused while conciliation runs, but only if you notify Acas within your time limit.

"Can I have time off for antenatal appointments?"

If you are an employee, you have the right to reasonable time off with full pay for antenatal appointments from your first day of employment. Agency workers get this after 12 weeks in the same placement.

"Can we share the leave?" (Shared Parental Leave and Pay)

• Shared Parental Leave (SPL) lets parents share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay. It must be taken by the day before the child's first birthday.
• The mother must first end her maternity leave and pay early, by going back to work or giving her employer binding notice. She cannot end it in the first 2 weeks after the birth (4 weeks if she works in a factory). Once maternity pay has ended it cannot restart.
• To take SPL you must be an employee (not a worker), have worked for the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the week the baby is due, and still be with that employer.
• Your partner must have worked for at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the week the baby is due, as an employee or self-employed, and earned at least £390 in total in 13 of those weeks.
• Shared Parental Pay is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. Each parent who claims it must earn on average at least £129 a week.
• Book it with at least 8 weeks' notice. Each parent can book up to 3 blocks (more if the employer agrees). An employer can refuse a block broken up by weeks back at work. If you do not agree a pattern within 2 weeks, you can take it as one continuous block or withdraw the request.

"Is my work safe while I'm pregnant or breastfeeding?"

• Tell your employer in writing that you are pregnant, have given birth in the last 6 months, or are breastfeeding. Until you do, the employer does not have to take the steps below.
• Your employer's risk assessment must cover risks to you and your baby. If there is a risk, it must change your working conditions or hours, if that is reasonable and would avoid the risk.
• If not, it must offer you suitable alternative work, on terms not substantially less favourable. If there is none, it must suspend you on full pay for as long as needed.
• If you unreasonably refuse suitable alternative work, you lose the right to pay while suspended.
• Night work: if a doctor or registered midwife gives you a certificate saying you should not work nights, the same steps apply.
• Your employer must provide somewhere suitable for you to rest while pregnant or breastfeeding (HSE: including somewhere to lie down if needed). HSE guidance says employers should also give you a private place to express and store milk, but this is guidance, not a legal duty.
• Not paid while suspended, or not offered suitable alternative work: you can claim at an employment tribunal. Time limit: 3 months less 1 day, or 6 months less 1 day where the day you should have been paid for (or the first day of the suspension) is on or after 1 October 2026. Contact Acas for early conciliation first.

Why the employer acted matters

Being treated badly while pregnant or on maternity leave is not enough on its own: the tribunal asks why the employer acted. The pregnancy, an illness caused by it, or maternity leave must be part of the reason. It does not have to be the only or main reason, and it can count even if the employer did not realise it, but it must be more than a trivial part.

Proof: you first need facts from which a tribunal could decide there was discrimination if there were no other explanation. If you have those, it is then up to the employer to prove it did not discriminate. For a dismissal to be automatically unfair, a reason connected with the pregnancy or maternity leave must be the reason, or the main reason if there was more than one.

Deadlines you must meet

• Maternity leave: tell your employer by the end of the 15th week before the week your baby is due.
• SMP: at least 28 days' notice of the start date, and proof of pregnancy within 21 days of the start date.
• Changing your return date: at least 8 weeks' notice.
• Shared Parental Leave: at least 8 weeks' notice before each block.
• Not paid while suspended on maternity grounds, or not offered suitable alternative work: 3 months less 1 day, or 6 months less 1 day where the day you should have been paid for (or the first day of the suspension) is on or after 1 October 2026.
• Most tribunal claims, including pregnancy and maternity discrimination and unfair dismissal: 3 months less 1 day from the act you are complaining about, or 6 months less 1 day where that act (or the last act in a series) happened on or after 1 October 2026.
• Notify Acas within your time limit, so that the clock is paused. Your exact date depends on your facts: see our tribunal deadline guide.

Traps

• There is no 1-year rule for SMP. The test is 26 weeks with your employer continuing into the qualifying week. Maternity leave needs no minimum service at all.
• The qualifying week is the 15th week before the week the baby is due, not the week of the due date.
• From week 7, SMP is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. Only the first 6 weeks have no upper limit.
• Maternity Allowance is not paid by your employer, its rate works differently from SMP, and the £129 figure does not apply to it.
• An SMP dispute goes to HMRC, not to a tribunal.
• Do not use Northern Ireland rules here.