Updated for the confirmed 2026/27 SMP rate of £194.32/week. Enter your band, hours, due date and region, see exactly what reaches your bank account through every phase of your leave, after tax, National Insurance, pension, and student loan.
Calculates income tax (cumulative PAYE) · National Insurance · NHS pension per phase · student loan (all plans) · London HCAS · part-time pro-rata · salary sacrifice impact on AWE · spread payments (9/10/12 months)
NHS maternity pay for Agenda for Change (AfC) staff is two separate payments combined into one: Occupational Maternity Pay (OMP), paid by your NHS Trust, and Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), government-funded and recoverable by your Trust from HMRC. Most calculators show these as a single blended number; this one shows both separately, because they have different eligibility rules, and it's possible to qualify for one without the other (see Who Is Eligible below).
For staff with 12 months' continuous NHS service, OMP runs in four phases across the full 52-week leave entitlement: full pay, then half pay plus SMP, then SMP only, then unpaid.
Worth knowing: full pay in the first phase already includes SMP; your Trust pays your full salary and recovers the SMP portion from HMRC separately; it isn't added on top. In the second phase, half pay plus SMP is capped so the combined total never exceeds full pay — a rule that's easy to get wrong and that materially affects lower earners' figures most.
For the full breakdown of who qualifies for OMP versus SMP, and what happens if you change jobs or don't return to work, see our NHS Maternity Pay Eligibility & Repayment Rules guide.
| Phase | Weeks | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | 1–8 | Full pay (SMP offset within, not added on top) |
| Phase 2 | 9–26 | Half pay + SMP, capped at full pay |
| Phase 3 | 27–39 | SMP only — £194.32/week or 90% AWE, whichever is lower |
| Phase 4 | 40–52 | Unpaid leave |
From 6 April 2026, Statutory Maternity Pay rose to £194.32 per week (up from £187.18), and the Lower Earnings Limit — the minimum average weekly earnings needed to qualify — rose to £129 per week, as confirmed on gov.uk.
In weeks 1–6, you receive 90% of your Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) with no upper cap; from week 7, the flat rate of £194.32 applies or 90% of AWE if that figure is lower. Most NHS salaries comfortably exceed the crossover point, so the large majority of AfC staff receive the flat rate from week 7 onward.
Use the calculator above for your exact week-by-week and month-by-month figures.
Illustrative examples using published 2026/27 mid-point salaries, England, full-time, no London weighting, and no salary sacrifice. Your exact figures will differ; use the calculator above for your own numbers.
| Band | Salary (example) | Phase 1 weekly | Phase 2 weekly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band 5 | £32,073 | £616.79 (full pay) | £502.71 (half pay + SMP, below cap) |
| Band 6 | £39,959 | £768.44 (full pay) | £578.54 (half pay + SMP, below cap) |
Why the Phase 2 cap matters: a worked example. On a £14,000 salary, weekly full pay is around £269.23 and half pay around £134.62. Add the £194.32 SMP flat rate, and the uncapped total would be £328.94 — more than full pay itself. The mandatory cap brings this back down to £269.23. This is the single detail most calculators get wrong: without the cap correctly enforced, lower earners are shown a Phase 2 figure that overstates what they'll actually receive.
If you used a maternity calculator last year, here's what's different now:
SMP increased. The flat rate rose from £187.18 to £194.32 per week from 6 April 2026, and the lower earnings limit rose from £125 to £129 per week.
Scotland's full-time week is reduced to 36 hours. From 1 April 2026, AfC full-time hours in Scotland dropped from 37 to 36, with no reduction in annual salary; this changes whole-time-equivalent (WTE) and pro-rata calculations for part-time Scottish staff.
Pension contribution rates vary by nation. Employer contributions for 2026/27 stand at 22.5% in Scotland and 23.2% in Northern Ireland, and 23.7% for England and Wales.
Full round-up: NHS Maternity Pay 2026/27: What's Changed This Year.
The phase figures above are gross. Income tax, National Insurance, pension, and student loan repayments (where applicable) all come off in the normal way; maternity pay is treated like any other earnings under PAYE.
National Insurance is calculated on standard monthly thresholds throughout, never annualized. Pension is the detail most people misunderstand: your contribution is deducted from the actual pay you receive in each phase, not your full salary, but your pension accrual record continues as though you'd been paid in full the whole time.
In practical terms, this means your pension contribution rate genuinely steps down as your phased pay reduces; by Phase 3, most staff fall into the lowest contribution tier, because annualized SMP alone is a comparatively low figure.
Your employer keeps contributing to your notional full pay throughout your paid leave. This employer contribution isn't deducted from you, and it doesn't reduce just because your own pay has.
For a deeper walkthrough of how pension tiers shift across the four phases, see our NHS Maternity Pay and Your Pension guide.
Toggle "After tax" in the calculator above to see your monthly net figure for every phase.
If you're in a salary sacrifice scheme — cycle to work, additional voluntary pension contributions, or buying extra leave — it reduces your average weekly earnings, which can reduce your SMP specifically in weeks 1–6. Your contractual phase pay (full pay or half pay) is unaffected by salary sacrifice; only the SMP element changes because AWE is calculated on your post-sacrifice gross pay.
For worked examples of exactly how much SMP you could lose at different sacrifice amounts, see our Salary Sacrifice and NHS Maternity Pay guide.
The calculator shows a warning and the exact reduction whenever you enter a salary sacrifice amount.
OMP and SMP have separate eligibility tests, checked against different service lengths at different points in your pregnancy; it's entirely possible to qualify for one without the other.
OMP (Occupational Maternity Pay) requires 12 months' continuous NHS service by the start of the 11th week before your expected week of childbirth (EWC). This counts cumulatively across different NHS Trusts and employers; provided there's no break in service, moving jobs within the NHS doesn't reset the clock.
SMP (Statutory Maternity Pay) requires 26 weeks' continuous service with your current employer, specifically by the end of the qualifying week (the 15th week before EWC), plus average weekly earnings at or above the £129 lower earnings limit.
Because these are different tests, someone who's recently changed NHS employer might meet the NHS-wide 12-month OMP test but not the employer-specific 26-week SMP test, or the reverse. Trusts generally apply the 12-month OMP cutoff strictly, with little to no leniency for being a few days short — don't assume flexibility here.
If you don't meet either threshold, you may still be eligible for Maternity Allowance — see gov.uk/maternity-allowance.
For the full eligibility rules, including what happens if you don't return to work and whether changing Trusts affects repayment, see our complete NHS Maternity Pay Eligibility & Repayment Rules guide.
Your Trust can spread your OMP evenly across 9, 10, or 12 months instead of the standard phased structure, giving lower but more predictable monthly income. Only OMP can be spread; SMP is always paid separately and can never be averaged out.
Which should you choose? This is a personal financial decision, not a right-or-wrong one. A 12-month spread means you receive something every month, which suits anyone who doesn't expect to return to work before 12 months are up.
Standard phased pay, or a shorter spread, gives you more money in the early months — when newborn costs are typically highest — but nothing in the final unpaid weeks if you take the full 52 weeks of leave.
A common surprise with spread payments: if your leave starts or ends mid-month, that first or last month's figure will look proportionally lower than the rest. This is correct, not a payroll error; it reflects the partial number of days actually covered that month, not a reduced overall entitlement. Your total across the full leave period stays identical regardless of how it's spread.
Once you've returned to work — including using annual leave immediately after your leave officially ends — you revert to your normal full salary. Spread or OMP rates only apply during the maternity leave period itself, not after.
Use the spread comparison table in the calculator above to see exact monthly figures under each option side by side, and confirm with your payroll team before your leave starts, since some Trusts won't issue a written pay projection until after leave has already begun.
NHS maternity pay entitlement is broadly UK-wide under Agenda for Change, but several details genuinely differ by nation:
Scotland: full-time hours are 36 (not 37.5) from 1 April 2026; the employer pension contribution is 22.5%; and Scottish income tax bands apply to your net take-home figures.
Northern Ireland: the employer pension contribution is 23.2%, administered by the HSC Pension Service rather than the NHSBSA.
Wales uses its own negotiated Agenda for Change pay scales, which can differ from England's. Welsh income tax rates for 2026/27 are currently aligned with England's bands (20%/40%/45%), but your salary itself should be checked against Welsh-specific AfC pay points, not assumed identical to England's.
Select your region in the calculator above — pension rates, full-time hours, and tax bands adjust automatically.
AfC staff with 12 or more months' service receive 8 weeks of full pay, 18 weeks of half pay plus SMP (capped at full pay), 13 weeks of SMP only, then unpaid leave. Your exact figures depend on your salary, hours, region, and any deductions. Enter your details in the calculator above for a precise breakdown.
The Statutory Maternity Pay rate for 2026/27 is £194.32 per week from 6 April 2026, or 90% of your average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks if that figure is higher. The lower earnings limit to qualify is £129 per week.
Your Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) come from your last two monthly payslips before your qualifying week, with no rounding applied until the final figure. Your phase pay is then worked out as full pay, capped half pay plus SMP, SMP only, then unpaid leave, in that order.
No. Under Agenda for Change rules, half pay plus SMP is capped at your full pay rate. If the combined figure would exceed full pay, your Phase 2 amount is reduced to match full pay exactly. Many calculators don't enforce this cap correctly.
No, provided there's no break in your service. Continuous NHS service counts across different Trusts and employers for OMP eligibility purposes, not just your current role.
No. The repayment rule applies if you leave NHS employment altogether within 15 months of starting your leave, not if you simply change trusts. SMP is never repayable under any circumstances.
Yes. Your trust can spread your OMP evenly over 9, 10, or 12 months. SMP cannot be spread and is always paid separately from week 9 of your leave onward.
Yes. Salary sacrifice reduces your average weekly earnings, which can reduce your SMP specifically in weeks 1 to 6. Your contractual phase pay (full pay and half pay) is not affected.
You may be eligible for maternity allowance instead. Visit gov.uk/maternity-allowance to check your eligibility and apply.