Maternity, paternity and adoption - an overview

Maternity pay

Most employees who qualify for Additional Maternity Leave also qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP). Women who don't may be able to claim Maternity Allowance. Employees can download a maternity allowance claim form from the Department for Work and Pensions website (PDF).

In order to qualify for SMP employees must have average earnings which are no lower than the lower earnings limit which applies to National Insurance.

SMP is paid during Ordinary Maternity Leave or if the employee has resigned after the start of the fifteenth week before the baby is due. It is payable at a rate of 90 per cent of average earnings for the first six weeks. The remaining 20 weeks are paid at the standard rate set by the government. SMP is paid at a rate of £117.18 per week or 90 per cent of weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

Employers can recover 92 per cent of payments but if your total National Insurance payments are less than £45,000 per year you can recover 104.5 per cent to cover payments and other costs. You can recover SMP by deducting it from payments you make to HM Revenue & Customs (eg PAYE, National Insurance). You can also get funding in advance for payments of SMP from HM Revenue & Customs.

The government intends to extend paid maternity leave to 39 weeks by April 2007, with a goal of extending it to a full year by 2010.

To help you to work out any SMP you have to pay your employee and how much of the cost you can recover, use the interactive SMP calculator on the HM Revenue & Customs website.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• When an employee is pregnant
• Health and safety of new and expectant mothers
• Maternity pay
• Returning to work after maternity leave
• Paternity pay
• Adoption pay
• Maternity, paternity and adoption leave
• Parental leave
• Time off for dependants
• Family-friendly ways of working

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