Plan statutory maternity pay, occupational top-up, unpaid leave weeks, salary reduction, and monthly household impact.
Use this page to model how statutory maternity pay could affect take-home pay and a household budget. For 2026/27, SMP planning uses average weekly earnings, the first 6 weeks at 90% of AWE, and remaining paid weeks at £194.32 or 90% of AWE if lower.
Enter average weekly earnings and how many paid weeks you plan to take. The shortfall is what statutory pay does not cover.
Statutory Maternity Pay pays 90% of average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks, then £194.32 a week, or 90% of average weekly earnings if that is lower. Leave can run to 52 weeks, and up to 39 of them are paid. The shortfall against normal pay is the figure worth planning around; many employers pay more than the statutory minimum, so check your contract.
Family-leave pay estimates do not decide qualifying-week, matching-week, notice, continuity, partner, adopter, neonatal-care, or employer-specific eligibility rules.
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | England/Wales/Northern Ireland |
| Tax code basis | 1257L where the page uses PAYE defaults |
| Pension basis | No pension deduction unless this example says otherwise |
| Student loan basis | No student loan unless selected in this example |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
|---|
The figures on this page are worked from maternity pay impact, using the values below. Open the calculator if your example salary differs.
Maternity and adoption pay run in two phases: a first stretch paid as a proportion of average weekly earnings, then the flat statutory rate for the rest. Paternity, shared parental and neonatal care pay run at one rate throughout. Each row uses the engine default for the number of weeks, so the totals are the full paid period rather than a chosen length.
| Payment and average weekly earnings | First phase, a week | Remaining weeks, a week | Paid weeks | Total across the paid period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maternity pay, £300 a week | £270.00 | £194.32 | 6 + 33 | £8,032.56 |
| Maternity pay, £500 a week | £450.00 | £194.32 | 6 + 33 | £9,112.56 |
| Maternity pay, £750 a week | £675.00 | £194.32 | 6 + 33 | £10,462.56 |
| Adoption pay, £500 a week | £450.00 | £194.32 | 6 + 33 | £9,112.56 |
| Paternity pay, £500 a week | One rate throughout | £194.32 | 2 | £388.64 |
| Shared parental pay, £500 a week | One rate throughout | £194.32 | 37 | £7,189.84 |
| Neonatal care pay, £500 a week | One rate throughout | £194.32 | 12 | £2,331.84 |
The maternity-pay tool uses shared statutory-pay rules and compares the leave period with normal salary so the monthly and annual impact is visible.
This is a planning estimate only. It does not decide legal entitlement, employer compliance, payroll correctness, or whether a payment must be made.
This estimate is worked out on £35,000 annual gross. Change any of those and the take-home figure moves; pension method and student loan plan usually move it most. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
It uses the shared 2026/27 SMP rules: first 6 weeks at 90% of average weekly earnings, then up to 33 weeks at £194.32 or 90% of AWE if lower.
No. It is a planning estimate only. Eligibility can depend on service, earnings, timing, notice, proof, qualifying week, leave dates and employer payroll rules.
You can enter an employer top-up or custom reduced-pay figure to model a workplace scheme, but PayBreakdown does not confirm the scheme rules or what an employer must pay.
Last updated 2026-08-27. Checked by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.