What are the rules for Maternity Pay and Maternity Leave in the UK?

As a business you have to grant your eligible employees maternity leave and pay new mothers statutory maternity pay. But what are the figures in detail and is every employee entitled to this?

Statutory Maternity Leave

As a legal minimum, eligible mothers are entitled to up to 52 weeks of maternity leave. The earliest expectant mothers can leave work before the birth is up to 11 weeks before the week of the due date. Employees must take at least two weeks off after the birth (four weeks for factory workers).

Employees are eligible for maternity leave if they have an employment contract and have given you the correct notice.

Employers can grant more maternity leave in their company maternity scheme.

Statutory Maternity Pay

As a legal minimum, employers must pay their eligible employees up to 39 weeks of maternity pay usually as follows:

• 90% of their average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks
• £145.18 per week or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings – whichever is lower

Again, employers can be more generous than this in their company maternity scheme.

To qualify for statutory maternity pay, employees need to fulfil the following criteria

• Give correct notice and provide proof that they’re pregnant (MATB1 form)
• Have been continuously employed by you for at least 26 weeks up to the qualifying week, which is the 15^th week before the expected week of childbirth
• Earn at least £116 per week before tax in an 8-week relevant period

If the employee does not qualify for statutory maternity pay, they might still qualify for maternity allowance.

What your business can claim back from HMRC

How much of statutory maternity pay you can claim back from HMRC depends on the size of your business.

• For businesses that have paid less than £45,000 in Class 1 National Insurance contributions you can claim back the full amount of statutory maternity pay.
• Larger businesses can still claim back 92% of the full amount.

All the figures above are correct for 2018.

To find out about paternity leave and paternity pay, please visit our blog post on the subject by clicking this link.

How Alba can help

If you have any questions regarding statutory maternity pay or leave, please get in touch. Maybe your employees have special circumstances such as babies born early, or you would like to find out whether your employee qualifies for maternity allowance? Simply get in touch by either emailing us admin@alba.uk.com or calling us on 01509 853779.