Your NHS pension keeps building throughout maternity leave, but the amount you actually pay in changes at every phase — and the way it's worked out is the single most misunderstood part of NHS maternity pay.
For your full phase-by-phase pay figures, use the NHS Maternity Pay Calculator.
Yes. Maternity leave is fully pensionable under the NHS Pension Scheme, and your pension record continues to build for the entire paid period exactly as if you were working normally. You don't lose pension membership or accrual by going on maternity leave, provided you keep contributing (more on opting out below).
The key distinction — and the source of most confusion — is this: what you pay in changes as your pay drops, but what your pension records as your earnings does not. These are two different things, and keeping them separate is the key to understanding your payslips.
Your pension contribution is deducted from the actual pay you receive in each phase, not from your full salary. Because your contribution tier is now set by your actual pay rather than your whole-time-equivalent salary, the percentage you pay genuinely steps down as your phase pay falls.
This is a relatively recent change worth knowing the timing of, because contribution statements before and after these dates work differently:
Here's how it plays out across the standard NHS maternity structure:
| Phase | Weeks | Pay you receive | Contribution tier based on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | 1–8 | Full pay | Your full annual pay |
| Phase 2 | 9–26 | Half pay + SMP (capped at full pay) | Your reduced annual pay |
| Phase 3 | 27–39 | SMP only | The SMP amount actually received |
| Phase 4 | 40–52 | Unpaid | Rate of pay before unpaid leave began |
By Phase 3, when you're receiving SMP only, most staff fall into the lowest contribution tier, because annualised SMP on its own is a comparatively small figure. SMP at the 2026/27 rate of £194.32 a week works out to around £10,105 a year, which sits in the lowest tier — 5.2% in England and Wales (applying to pensionable pay up to £13,259).
The full England and Wales tiers for 2026/27 run 5.2%, 6.5%, 8.3%, 9.8%, 10.7% and 12.5% across rising pay bands; Scotland and Northern Ireland use their own tier tables.
So your monthly pension deduction in Phase 3 is far smaller than in Phase 1 — not because your pension is worth less, but because you're contributing a lower percentage of a lower amount.
This is the part most people get wrong, and it's genuinely good news. While your contributions are calculated on your reduced actual pay, your pension benefits continue to build on your full, unreduced "deemed" pay throughout the paid period.
In plain terms: for the purpose of growing your pension, you're treated as if you never had a pay drop at all. The reduced contributions don't reduce the pension you earn. You get the same accrual you'd have had on full pay, while paying in less during the lower-pay phases.
Your employer plays its part here too, continuing to contribute on your notional full pay throughout the paid period regardless of what you're personally receiving. That employer contribution isn't taken from you and doesn't shrink as your own pay drops.
During the unpaid phase (weeks 40–52), no pension contribution is deducted, because there's no pay to deduct it from. But your pension membership isn't simply switched off — and this is where a payslip surprise tends to appear after you return.
If you choose to keep your pension pensionable through the unpaid weeks, the contributions for that period aren't lost — they're collected from your pay once you return to work, usually spread over around three months to match the period they relate to.
The payslip surprise: your first few payslips back can show a slightly larger pension deduction than you expected. That's the unpaid-period contributions being recovered, not an error.
Contributing during unpaid leave isn't compulsory. If you'd prefer not to keep the unpaid weeks pensionable, you must tell your employer before your pay reduces to nil, not afterwards. If you do nothing, your employer will typically treat the period as pensionable and collect the arrears on your return.
No. If you've chosen to spread your OMP evenly over 9, 10, or 12 months, your pension contributions are still calculated against the standard phase schedule, not against the flat averaged figure you actually see each month.
The practical result is that your total pension contributions are identical whether you spread your pay or take it in the standard phased way, just as your total pay is identical either way. Spreading changes the rhythm of your income, not your pension. The unpaid-week arrears mechanism above still applies in the same way even when your pay has been averaged out.
For how spreading affects the rest of your take-home pay month to month, see the spread payments section on the NHS Maternity Pay Calculator page.
Yes, you can stop contributing to the NHS Pension Scheme at any time, including before or during your maternity leave, by opting out. If you opt out, the maternity leave period isn't treated as pensionable and no contributions are deducted from the pay you receive.
There's one important catch to be aware of before deciding: if you opt out before or during your maternity leave, you can't later choose to rejoin and pay contributions for that same leave period, either during it or retrospectively.
You can resume scheme membership once you return to paid employment, but the maternity period you opted out of stays non-pensionable. Because the lower-pay phases already cost you very little in contributions while still building full pension benefits, opting out during maternity leave is rarely the bargain it might first appear, so it's worth thinking carefully before doing so.
As your pension is treated as building on full, unreduced pay throughout maternity leave, your year-on-year pension growth shouldn't swing wildly when you return to full pay. Errors in how pay and service are recorded during leave can occasionally produce inflated growth figures that look like they might trigger an annual allowance charge, so if your figures look unexpectedly high on return, it's worth asking your employer or pensions team to check the maternity period was recorded correctly before assuming a charge applies.
Yes, NHS maternity leave is fully pensionable. Your pension continues to build for the entire paid period, and your benefits accrue on your full, unreduced pay even while your actual contributions are based on the lower pay you receive in each phase.
Yes. Your contributions are deducted from the actual pay you receive in each phase, and because your contribution tier is set by your actual pay, the percentage you pay steps down as your phase pay falls. By the SMP-only phase, most staff are in the lowest tier.
Yes. Your reduced contributions don't reduce the pension you earn. For benefit purposes you're treated as if you were on full pay throughout, so you build the same pension while paying in less during the lower-pay phases.
If you kept your pension pensionable through the unpaid weeks, no contribution could be taken at the time, so those contributions are collected once you return, usually spread over around three months. The larger deduction is that arrears being recovered, not a mistake.
No. Even if your OMP is spread evenly over 9, 10, or 12 months, your pension contributions are still worked out against the standard phase schedule. Your total contributions and total pay are the same whether you spread or not.
Yes, you can opt out at any time, but you can't later rejoin and pay contributions for that same leave period. You can resume membership when you return to work. Since the lower-pay phases cost very little in contributions while still building full benefits, opting out is rarely worthwhile.
Salary sacrifice mainly affects your SMP rather than your core pension accrual, but it can interact with both your earnings and your contributions. For how sacrifice reduces your average weekly earnings and SMP, see our Salary Sacrifice and NHS Maternity Pay guide.