Maternity leave paperwork and a budget for the SMP drop

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The money side of maternity leave runs on a handful of dates and documents. Most of them come from your employer, a few from your midwife, and several are only useful if you can find them again eight months later. This page lists what to keep, then sets out a simple budget that deals with the step down in pay after the first six weeks.

The documents, and when they arrive

These are the items GOV.UK describes for employed people claiming Statutory Maternity Pay and leave.

• Your notice of leave. You tell your employer at least 15 weeks before the due date when the baby is due. They must write back within 28 days confirming your leave start and end dates. Keep that reply, because it is the agreed record of your dates.
• Your SMP notice. GOV.UK says to give at least 28 days' notice of the day you want SMP to start, and in writing if your employer asks. They must then confirm within 28 days how much SMP you will get and when it starts and stops.
• Proof of pregnancy. This is needed for SMP, not for leave. You must provide it within 21 days of your SMP start date, or as soon as possible if the baby is born early. A letter from your doctor or midwife works, as does the MATB1 certificate, which GOV.UK says doctors and midwives give you no more than 20 weeks before the due date.
• Form SMP1. If your employer decides you are not eligible, they must give you SMP1 within 7 days of the decision, with the reasons. Keep it with the rest.

Photograph or scan each one as it arrives, and keep the paper in one place. Ad An expanding document file with labelled pockets will hold the whole set with room for payslips. A Ad clear zip-up document wallet is a smaller option that goes in a changing bag or a handbag.

Check the eligibility facts first

Before you build a budget, check you qualify. For SMP you need to have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks continuing into the qualifying week, which is the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth. You must also earn on average at least £129 a week, the Lower Earnings Limit for 2026/27.

If you do not qualify, Maternity Allowance may be available. GOV.UK gives the rate for employed people as £194.32 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 39 weeks. For self-employed people it ranges from £27 to £194.32 a week depending on Class 2 National Insurance contributions. If you do unpaid work for your spouse's or civil partner's business, it is £27 a week for up to 14 weeks. The Maternity Allowance guide covers who qualifies.

What the pay actually does

SMP lasts up to 39 weeks. The first six weeks are paid at 90% of your average weekly earnings, with no cap. After that, it is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

Here is a worked example, with invented figures. Say your average weekly earnings are £620.

• Weeks 1 to 6: 90% of £620 is £558 a week.
• Weeks 7 to 39: 90% of £620 is £558, which is higher than £194.32, so you receive £194.32 a week.
• The total is (6 x £558) plus (33 x £194.32): £3,348 plus £6,412.56, which is £9,760.56 across 39 weeks.

Put another way, the weekly figure drops by about £364 after week 6. That drop is the number to plan around. The way your average earnings are chosen is covered in the page on how average weekly earnings are worked out, and the calculator will do the sum with your own figures.

These amounts are before tax and National Insurance, so check a payslip when the first payment arrives before treating them as take-home.

A simple budget in three steps

1. Write down the fixed monthly outgoings. Rent or mortgage, council tax, energy, broadband, phone, travel you cannot avoid. Use your last three statements rather than memory.
2. Set two income columns. One for weeks 1 to 6 and one for weeks 7 to 39. Fill them in from the calculator. If your leave includes an enhanced employer scheme, put that in its own line, from the policy document, not from an assumption.
3. Find the gap in the second column. If the fixed outgoings are bigger than the weeks 7 to 39 income, the gap is the monthly amount to cover. Savings built during the first six weeks, or in the weeks before leave starts, go towards that.

A Ad monthly budget planner notebook works as well as a spreadsheet for this, and some people find it easier to leave on the kitchen table where a partner can see it. A Ad wall calendar with large date boxes is useful for marking the dates that matter: pay day, the last day of the higher-rate weeks and the end of paid leave in week 39.

Dates to mark

• The 15th week before the due date, by which you need to have told your employer when the baby is due.
• 28 days before your SMP is to start, the notice date.
• The date of the first SMP payment.
• The end of week 6, when the weekly amount drops.
• The end of week 39, when SMP ends.

Marking these on paper beats relying on a phone reminder you might clear by mistake. If you set both, the paper copy is still there when a battery dies.

What to ask your employer in writing

• What the SMP start date is.
• How much the weekly SMP figure is, and the dates it covers.
• Whether the employer has an enhanced maternity scheme and how it pays out.

The reply is the document to file under SMP. If the figures are not what the calculator suggests, you will have the dates and amounts to compare, which is easier than trying to reconstruct a conversation.