Maternity Leave Calculator and Calendar

Employment law legislation can make planning for your employee's maternity leave confusing. Use our simple and easy maternity leave calculator and maternity leave calendar to help highlight your obligations to employees who fall pregnant.

First use the maternity leave calendar on the left to select the expected date of birth of your employee's baby. The maternity leave calculator below will then provide all of the key dates and milestones you need to be aware of under current legislation.

Use the Calendar to select the expected date of birth

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In order to qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay, a woman must have been working for her employer technically for 26 weeks by the end of the 'Qualifying Week' (this being 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth). In effect, put simply, this is 41 weeks service by the baby's due date.

Statutory maternity pay is paid for the first 6 weeks at 90% of average weekly earnings, followed by a further 33 weeks at the lesser of 90% of average weekly earnings or the applicable statutory rate which varies each year. However, in order to calculate average earnings, you need to understand which period you are required to refer. This will be the period of 8 weeks running up to the qualifying week.

This is the last date by which the employee must inform the employer of the fact that they are pregnant, their expected week of childbirth and their intended maternity leave start date. This will almost always be submitted in the format of a MAT B1 form.

Maternity leave cannot ordinarily commence until this date (which is 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth). However, if the baby is born before this date, maternity leave automatically starts on the day after childbirth.

Maternity leave will start automatically if the employee is absent from work for a pregnancy related reason on or after this date (which is 4 weeks before the expected week of childbirth).

Maternity Leave Obligations

As en employer you need to understand the law surrounding maternity leave, your obligations, and the rights of your employees. Staff who fall pregnant in the UK are entitled to Statutory Maternity Leave (SML) of 52 weeks. This is made up of 26 weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave and 26 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave.

Your employees are entitled to SML no matter how long they have worked for you, how many hours they work or how much you pay them. The employer pays SML but can reclaim all or most of the money back from the government.

As a client of Bibby Consulting and Support we will help guide you through this complex and unsettling period. We understand that loosing a key employee for this length of time can put real pressure on any business. If you’re a small company then dealing with an absent employees workload can be very challenging, especially if you are not an HR expert. You also need to be aware of issues relating to unfair dismissal, redundancy and discrimination before taking any action.

Bibby Consulting and Support work with thousands of clients and fully understand all issues relating to maternity leave and the treatment of pregnant employees. Our teams of highly qualified consultants and legal specialists can help with any situation, ensuring peace of mind and reducing the burden of legislation on your business.

To speak to one of our advisors then give us a call on 0800 015 7541 or fill in our contact form