Hundred SummersMaternity and paternity pay calculator: the statutory weeks, and what the leave costs
Statutory Maternity Pay week by week for 2026/27, any employer enhancement laid over it, Statutory Paternity Pay, and the honest household figure: the take-home lost over a year with the leave in it, after tax and NI fall too. Your figures never leave your browser.
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Worked example
Computed when this page was built by the same engine that runs the calculator above, so the figures below and the live tool can never disagree. Change any input above to see your own.
| Inputs | |
|---|---|
| Leave | Maternity, 52 weeks |
| Salary | £36,000 |
| Employer enhancement | None (statutory only) |
| Results | |
|---|---|
| First 6 weeks at 90% of earnings | £623 a week |
| Weeks 7–39 | £194.32 a week (the lower of £194.32 and 90%) |
| Weeks 40–52 | Unpaid |
| Pay over the 52 weeks | £10,151 |
| Gross pay given up | £25,849 |
| Take-home lost over the year (after lower tax and NI) | £19,289 |
The next question
How much help with childcare will we get? →Tax-Free Childcare calculator
Or answer it with everything else: the full Hundred Summers plan connects your pay, pensions, savings, property, tax and spending year by year, and stress-tests them across 500 simulated market histories.
Read the guide
- Maternity leave and money: what the year really costs, and what to protect →Statutory maternity pay week by week, why the take-home lost is less than the gross gap, the three things to protect while on leave (the child benefit claim, the pension, the State Pension record), and how part-time afterwards prices out.
The statutory shape
Statutory Maternity Pay runs 39 weeks: 90% of average earnings for 6 weeks, then the lower of £194.32 and 90% for 33 weeks. Leave can run to 52 weeks, so the last 13 are unpaid. It is taxed and NI’d like wages. Paternity pay is 2 weeks at the same capped rate, and Shared Parental Pay lets those 33 capped weeks be split between parents. Many employers enhance (typically some weeks at full pay, sometimes then half pay), and the enhancement replaces the statutory amount for those weeks rather than adding to it.
What the year actually costs
The gross gap overstates the cost, because a year with leave in it also pays less tax and NI; the calculator compares a normal year’s take-home with the leave year’s. Two things to protect while on leave: the child benefit claim, which carries National Insurance credits for the State Pension even if the high-income charge means the money is paid back, and pension contributions, which usually drop to a share of the reduced pay while the employer’s continue on normal pay. In the Hundred Summers app a period of leave is a salary change with a start and end, so its effect on the plan is visible rather than guessed.
Sources
- gov.uk, Maternity pay and leave: pay.
- gov.uk, Paternity pay and leave: pay.
- gov.uk, Maternity pay eligibility; the lower earnings limit from HMRC National Insurance rates.