Key takeaways
- Statutory Maternity Pay covers 39 weeks: the first 6 at 90% of your average weekly earnings, then 33 weeks at £194.32 a week — or 90% of your earnings if that is lower.
- Once your earnings pass about £216 a week, weeks 7–39 are £194.32 regardless of what you normally earn — only the first six weeks scale with your pay.
- You need 26 weeks’ continuous employment with the same employer into the 15th week before your baby is due, and average weekly earnings of at least £129 a week.
- Statutory Maternity Leave is 52 weeks, but SMP only covers 39 — the final 13 weeks are unpaid unless your employer tops them up.
Statutory Maternity Pay covers 39 weeks: the first 6 at 90% of your average weekly earnings, then 33 weeks at £194.32 a week — or 90% of your earnings if that is lower.
Planning a year around a baby means planning money around 39 weeks of pay that changes halfway through. SMP has two gears: generous for six weeks, then a flat rate that is the same for almost everyone. The gap between the two catches people out — the first six weeks feel fine, then the pay drops by hundreds of pounds a week and the budget breaks. Knowing the schedule in advance is the whole game.
The schedule, in one table
Your average weekly earnings (AWE) are your average gross weekly pay over the 8 weeks ending with the 15th week before your expected week of childbirth — overtime, commission and bonuses in that window count. From that one number, the whole 39 weeks follow:
| Weeks | Per week | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|
| 1–6: 90% of average weekly earnings | £450.00 | £2,700.00 |
| 7–39: flat rate or 90%, whichever is lower | £194.32 | £6,412.56 |
| Total — 39 weeks | £9,112.56 |
That table is for average weekly earnings of £500 — a £26,000 salary. The calculator at Statutory Maternity Pay calculator builds the same schedule for your own earnings, week by week, all 39 weeks.
How the total changes with your earnings
The flat rate is the great leveller: once your earnings pass about £216 a week, weeks 7–39 are £194.32 regardless of what you normally earn. Below that, 90% of your earnings is lower than the flat rate, so you get 90% for all 39 weeks. Above it, only the first six weeks scale with your pay:
| Average weekly earnings | Weeks 1–6 / week | Weeks 7–39 / week | 39-week total |
|---|---|---|---|
| £200 | £180.00 | £180.00 | £7,020.00 |
| £500 | £450.00 | £194.32 | £9,112.56 |
| £1,000 | £900.00 | £194.32 | £11,812.56 |
Notice the pattern: raising your earnings from £200 to £500 adds £2,092.56 to the total, but going from £500 to £1,000 adds £2,700.00 — all of it in the first six weeks. The last 33 weeks are identical at £194.32 for everyone earning over £216 a week. That is why the first-six-weeks figure matters so much in budgeting: it is the only part of SMP that reflects your actual salary.
Do you qualify?
Two tests. First, 26 weeks' continuous employment with the same employer into the 15th week before your baby is due (the qualifying week). Second, average weekly earnings of at least £129 a week in the 8 weeks before that qualifying week — the 2026/27 Lower Earnings Limit. If you fail the earnings test, you may be able to claim Maternity Allowance instead, which is worth checking: it pays up to the same £194.32 a week for 39 weeks for people who do not qualify for SMP. If you fail the service test — you changed jobs recently, for example — Maternity Allowance is again the fallback.
Keeping in touch days and shared parental leave
SMP is only half the parental-leave picture. You can work up to 10 "keeping in touch" (KIT) days during maternity leave without ending your leave or losing SMP — and those days are paid on top of your SMP at your normal rate, or as agreed with your employer. They are worth using deliberately: a KIT day in week 20, for example, is paid at your full daily rate rather than the £194.32 flat rate, and it keeps you connected without burning leave. Use them or lose them — unused KIT days do not carry over, and working an 11th day ends your maternity leave outright.
Shared parental leave is the other option many parents miss. After the first two compulsory weeks, you can end your maternity leave early and share the remaining leave and pay with your partner as shared parental leave and pay — at the same £194.32 flat rate for the remaining weeks. The total amount of pay available does not change: 39 weeks of SMP becomes 39 weeks split between two parents. Whether that is worth it depends on who earns more and who can take the time, but the maths is the same either way, and the decision is about your family, not the tax system. One practical note: shared parental pay is claimed through the employer, and the notice deadlines are strict — eight weeks' notice for the first block — so decide early, not in week 30.
The 13 unpaid weeks
Statutory Maternity Leave is 52 weeks, but SMP only covers 39. The final 13 weeks are unpaid unless your employer tops them up. Many employers do offer enhanced maternity pay — often full pay for a number of weeks, then SMP, then unpaid — and the enhancement is usually where the real money is: a few weeks of full pay can be worth more than the whole flat-rate stretch. When you compare job offers or negotiate, ask for the enhanced maternity policy in writing; it is worth more than a small salary difference. The calculator shows the statutory floor; your employer's policy sits on top of it.
Budgeting for 39 weeks: the income cliff
The schedule is only half the story; the other half is what it does to your monthly income. On average weekly earnings of £500, your normal monthly pay is £2,166.67. In the first six weeks of SMP you receive £1,950.00 a month — a gap of £216.67 a month, which most households can absorb. From week 7, though, you receive £842.05 a month — a gap of £1,324.61 a month, every month, for 33 weeks. That is the cliff: the flat rate replaces barely two-fifths of an ordinary salary, and it lasts more than seven months. Households that budget on the first-six-weeks figure and forget the drop are the ones that run into trouble in month three.
Planning for the cliff starts before the baby arrives. The practical moves are unglamorous: build a buffer in the months before maternity leave starts, check whether your employer tops up SMP (many do for the first weeks, and the top-up is often the difference between coping and not), and check whether your partner can share the leave — shared parental pay is paid at the same £194.32 flat rate, but splitting the leave can let the higher earner return to work sooner. Check your mortgage or rent: some lenders offer a payment holiday for parental leave, and it is far easier to arrange before you need it than after. And remember that SMP is taxable income but does not carry employee NI or pension deductions in the usual way — the calculator shows the gross figure, and your take-home will be close to it unless the payment pushes you into a tax band. The Statutory Maternity Pay calculator shows the full 39-week schedule so you can plan month by month, not just in total.
Tax, and the practical bits
SMP is taxable income and counts towards your personal allowance; National Insurance is deducted from it like normal pay, and it counts as earnings for student loan purposes. Your employer pays it through payroll, on your normal pay day, so there is nothing to claim. One timing trap: the 8-week earnings window that sets your AWE. A bonus or overtime in that window raises your AWE and therefore your first six weeks — and a dip (unpaid leave, a quiet commission month) lowers it. You cannot choose the window, but you should know which eight weeks they are, because a payslip error there follows you for 39 weeks.
The one thing to remember about SMP is the shape of it: six weeks that track your earnings, then 33 weeks that do not. Everything else — the eligibility rules, the KIT days, the shared leave, the 13 unpaid weeks — is detail around that shape. If you take one number away, take the flat-rate monthly figure: £842.05 a month is what most of your leave pays, and if that number does not cover your outgoings, the time to find out is before the baby arrives, not in week 7. Build the buffer, check the employer top-up, talk to your partner about sharing the leave — and run your own earnings through the Statutory Maternity Pay calculator so the schedule you are planning against is yours, not an example.
Build your own 39-week schedule
The Statutory Maternity Pay calculator builds the same schedule for your own earnings, week by week, all 39 weeks.
Figures from the 2026/27 rates, last checked against GOV.UK on 5 November 2026. See all the rates on UK tax rates 2026/27. Next in this series: Statutory Sick Pay: what you actually get, day by day.