Maternity pay calculator, week by week

Reading your schedule

The headline is the total SMP for 39 weeks, before deductions. The first two lines split it between the earnings-related block and the later weeks, and the table below lists every pay week with its start date, end date and amount. With the example already filled in (pay of £560 a week, baby due on 15 March 2027, leave from 28 February 2027), the qualifying week runs from 29 November 2026 to 5 December 2026 and employment must have started by 13 June 2026. Weeks 1 to 6 pay £504.00 each, £3,024.00 in all; each of the 33 remaining weeks pays £194.32. SMP stops on 27 November 2027 and leave, if all 52 weeks are taken, on 26 February 2028. The request for SMP should reach the employer by 31 January 2027, 28 days before it starts.

The April uprating inside a single leave

Because SMP runs for nine months, most pay periods cross an April. The rule HMRC applies is precise: the higher rate starts with the first SMP week that begins on or after the first Sunday in April, shifted to the weekday your pay weeks start on. In the example, pay weeks start on a Sunday, so the 2027 change would apply from 4 April 2027; every flat-rate week falls after it, so all 33 are flagged as provisional. A leave that began on 4 January 2026 shows the mechanism with known figures: 7 flat-rate weeks were paid at £187.18, then 26 at £194.32 from 5 April 2026. The earnings-related weeks never change, since 90% of your own pay does not depend on the uprating.

When the result says “not due”

Three reasons can stop the payment, and the calculator names the one that applies. Average earnings under £129 fail the earnings test; a start date after the last qualifying day fails the service test; a leave date earlier than 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth is simply not allowed. In the first two cases the employer must give you form SMP1 explaining the refusal, and you can then claim Maternity Allowance from Jobcentre Plus, which pays the same flat rate for the same number of weeks if you meet its own work test.

Northern Ireland and two jobs

The rates, the lower earnings limit and the dates are the same in Northern Ireland, where nidirect applies the identical £194.32 figure for 2026/27, so the calculator needs no nation setting. If you have two employers and qualify with each, each one pays SMP on its own earnings; run the calculator once per job. To understand where the average weekly figure comes from, read how SMP average weekly earnings are worked out; for the dates alone, the maternity leave dates calculator lays out the calendar without the money.