Guide to Maternity Leave

Whether you work five full days a week or just a few hours, as a pregnant woman you are entitled to up to 26 weeks’ ordinary maternity leave (OML). This also applies whether you have worked for your employer for many years or have only recently joined. You are also allowed to take paid time off for antenatal care, including medical appointments, visits by your midwife or health visitor, ‘parent craft’ classes and rest periods.

Statutory maternity pay

As long as you earn no less than £77 per week on average and have been in your job for at least 26 weeks continuously by the beginning of the 15th week before the baby is due, you are entitled to 26 weeks’ statutory maternity pay (SMP). To claim, you must first inform your employer that you are pregnant - you may have to provide written medical proof signed by your doctor - and that you intend to begin OML in no fewer than four weeks’ time. (You can’t be paid SMP while still at work.)

You can claim maternity pay up to eleven weeks before the date your baby is due and as late as a week before. For six weeks you’ll receive 90% of your ‘average wage’, followed by 20 weeks at £102.80 a week. The average weekly wage is worked out from the salary you earn in the two months before you begin to claim SMP. If your average wage is less than £102.80, you will earn 90% of your salary for the full 26 weeks.

Your employer treats your SMP in the same way as it does your full salary, deducting tax and National Insurance and paying the net amount into your bank account. Meanwhile, you will continue to accrue paid holiday entitlement and make use of any benefits such as a company car or computer equipment. If you work for more than one company, you can claim SMP from each employer.

Maternity Allowance

If you are not entitled to SMP – if, for instance, you are unemployed or changed jobs during the first weeks of your pregnancy – then you are likely to be able to claim Maternity Allowance (MA) from your local social security office. To be eligible to claim £102.80 a week, you must have been employed or self-employed for at least 26 of the 66 weeks leading up to the week before you are expecting your baby. You must also have earned an average of at least £30 a week. Again, if your average weekly wage has been less than £102.80, you will receive 90% of your earnings.

Paternity leave

The father of your child – be he your spouse or partner – can claim similar entitlements as you. He must have been working for his employer for at least 26 consecutive weeks by the 15th week before your baby is due. He can take up to two consecutive weeks’ leave from the baby’s birth date and no later than eight weeks after the baby is born.

He will receive statutory paternity pay (SPP) of £102.80, or 90% of his average weekly wage if that is less than £102.80.

Further details

For more information of maternity and paternity leave and pay, consult the Department of Works and Pensions (http://www.dwp.gov.uk).