Family leave
Maternity Allowance: the payment when SMP is not due
Paid by the state rather than the employer, with a far lower earnings bar than SMP and its own route for the self-employed.
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Maternity Allowance (MA) is a benefit paid by the Department for Work and Pensions, or the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland, to women who cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay. An employed woman, or one who has recently stopped work, gets £194.32 a week or 90% of her average weekly earnings, whichever is less, for up to 39 weeks, if in the 66 weeks before the week the baby is due she was employed or self-employed for at least 26 weeks and earned at least £30 a week in 13 of them, which need not be consecutive. A self-employed woman gets between £27.00 and £194.32 depending on how many weeks of Class 2 National Insurance were paid. A woman who works unpaid in her spouse’s or civil partner’s self-employed business can get £27.00 a week for 14 weeks. You can claim once you have been pregnant for 26 weeks, and payment can start from the 11th week before the due week.
Your Maternity Allowance, week and total
Maternity Allowance a week
£194.32
| Weeks paid | 39 |
| Total | £7,578.48 |
| Weeks of leave left unpaid | 13 |
The lower of £194.32 and 90 % of your earnings.
Who it is for
Maternity Allowance fills the gaps left by SMP. The typical claimants are women who changed jobs during pregnancy and so lack 26 weeks with the current employer, women whose average pay falls below the £129 lower earnings limit, the self-employed, and women who stopped work shortly before or during pregnancy. It does not matter if you had several jobs or gaps of unemployment in the test period. An employer who refuses SMP gives you form SMP1, which you send with the claim.
The test period is the 66 weeks before the week your baby is due. For a baby due on 15 March 2027, the expected week of childbirth starts on 14 March 2027 and the test period runs from 7 December 2025 to 13 March 2027. Within it you need two things: 26 weeks in which you were employed or self-employed, in any job, and 13 weeks, not necessarily together, in which you earned at least £30.
The three rates
Employed or recently employed: £194.32 or 90%
The weekly amount is the lower of the standard rate and 90% of your average weekly earnings, for 39 weeks. Unlike SMP there is no 6-week period at 90% of full pay, so for anyone earning well above £215.91 a week, MA is worth less than SMP would have been. The table, computed with the site’s engine, compares the two for a leave starting on 5 April 2026.
| Average weekly earnings | MA a week | MA, 39 weeks | SMP, 39 weeks, if eligible |
|---|---|---|---|
| £60 | £54.00 | £2,106.00 | Below the earnings limit |
| £120 | £108.00 | £4,212.00 | Below the earnings limit |
| £180 | £162.00 | £6,318.00 | £6,318.00 |
| £215 | £193.50 | £7,546.50 | £7,546.50 |
| £400 | £194.32 | £7,578.48 | £8,572.56 |
The lower rows show where Maternity Allowance matters most: on £60 or £120 a week there is no SMP at all, but MA pays 90% of earnings for the full 39 weeks.
Self-employed: from £27.00 to £194.32
The self-employed rate depends on Class 2 National Insurance in the test period. To get the standard £194.32 you need to have been registered with HMRC for 26 weeks of the 66 and to have paid Class 2 for at least 13 of them. With fewer contributions the rate is scaled down, and with none it is £27.00. Since April 2024, Class 2 is treated as paid for people with profits above the small profits threshold, but nidirect warns that a self-employed woman may still need voluntary contributions to reach the standard rate of Maternity Allowance. You may be paid £27.00 at first while HMRC links the contributions to the claim; the difference is then backdated.
Unpaid work in a spouse’s business: £27.00 for 14 weeks
If for at least 26 of the 66 weeks you took part, unpaid, in the self-employed business of your husband, wife or civil partner and were neither employed nor self-employed yourself, you can get £27.00 a week for 14 weeks, £378.00 in all. Your spouse or civil partner must be registered as self-employed and paying Class 2 contributions over the same weeks.
Claiming, step by step
- Wait until you have been pregnant for 26 weeks.
- Fill in form MA1, on paper or online and then printed.
- Send original payslips as proof of earnings, the MATB1 or a doctor’s or midwife’s letter for the due date, and the SMP1 if your employer refused SMP.
- Choose a start date between the 11th week before the due week and the day after the birth, and claim within 3 months of it.
If the claim is refused, you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration and then appeal. While the allowance is paid, tell the helpline about any return to work, a new job, a move abroad or becoming entitled to SMP. If you later qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay because of a backdated pay rise, the employer allows for the Maternity Allowance already received.
Northern Ireland
The rates, the 66-week test period and the £30 threshold are the same, but the claim goes to the Department for Communities through a Jobs and Benefits office, with the same MA1 form (nidirect, Maternity Allowance). MA alone gives £7,578.48 at most over 39 weeks. On either side of the Irish Sea, a mother on MA can give notice to end it early so that unused weeks become Statutory Shared Parental Pay for her partner, as GOV.UK’s shared parental guide explains; once ended, MA cannot restart.