Maternity, Paternity & Sick Pay Calculator 2026/27

What this calculator works out

Statutory pay is the minimum your employer must pay you by law when you’re off work to have a baby, to look after a new child, or because you’re ill. The calculator covers three of the most common payments for the 2026/27 tax year:

• Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), paid for up to 39 weeks.
• Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), paid for 2 weeks to the partner of someone giving birth or adopting.
• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), paid for up to 28 weeks of illness.

Enter your normal gross pay and choose whether that’s per week, month or year. We convert it to average weekly earnings (AWE), which is the figure every statutory payment is based on. For monthly pay we use HMRC’s method: monthly pay × 12 ÷ 52. Then we show every week of payments, the total, and how that compares with your normal pay for the same weeks.

How Statutory Maternity Pay is calculated

SMP has two stages:

1. Weeks 1 to 6: 90% of your average weekly earnings, with no upper limit.
2. Weeks 7 to 39: £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

HMRC says to round any fraction of a penny up when working out 90% of earnings, and the calculator does the same.

Worked example: £2,600 a month

Someone earning £2,600 a month has average weekly earnings of £600.00.

Stage	Weekly SMP	Weeks	Total
First 6 weeks at 90%	£540.00	6	£3,240.00
Next 33 weeks at the flat rate	£194.32	33	£6,412.56
Total SMP		39	£9,652.56

Over the same 39 weeks their normal pay would have been £23,400, so their income falls by about £13,747 before tax. Seeing this number early helps you plan savings and talk to your employer about any enhanced scheme.

Worked example: £1,800 a month

On £1,800 a month, average weekly earnings are £415.38. The first six weeks pay £373.85 a week, then £194.32 a week for the next 33 weeks, a total of £8,655.66. The lower your pay, the smaller the drop: the flat rate replaces a bigger share of normal earnings.

Who qualifies for SMP and SPP

To get SMP or SPP you must normally:

• be an employee (not self-employed or a worker on some casual contracts);
• have worked for the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the baby is due (the qualifying week);
• earn on average at least the Lower Earnings Limit, which is £129.00 a week in 2026/27.

If your earnings are below the limit, the calculator tells you that you’re not eligible. You may be able to get Maternity Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions instead. Self-employed parents can also claim Maternity Allowance.

Statutory Paternity Pay

SPP is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for 2 weeks. On £2,600 a month that’s £388.64 in total. You can take the two weeks together or as two separate weeks within 52 weeks of the birth. Shared Parental Pay is paid at the same weekly rate if you and your partner share the leave.

Statutory Sick Pay changed in April 2026

From 6 April 2026 SSP works differently:

• It’s paid from the first day you’re off sick. Before, the first 3 qualifying days were unpaid “waiting days”.
• There’s no minimum earnings level. Before, you had to earn at least the Lower Earnings Limit.
• The weekly rate is £123.25 or 80% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

For example, two weeks off sick (10 working days) on £2,600 a month pays £246.50 in 2026/27. The same absence in 2025/26 paid £166.25, because the first three days were unpaid. A part-time worker on £600 a month (average weekly earnings £138.46) now gets £110.77 for a week off: 80% of their earnings, where before they wouldn’t have qualified at all.

SSP is paid for the days you normally work (your qualifying days). For part weeks the weekly rate is divided by the number of days you work and rounded up to the penny, matching HMRC’s daily-rate tables. SSP stops after 28 weeks, which is £3,451.00 in total at the full rate.

What the calculator doesn’t cover

• Enhanced company schemes. Check your contract. Many employers pay full or half pay before statutory pay starts.
• Statutory Adoption Pay is calculated in the same way as SMP, so you can use the maternity option.
• Keeping in touch days, pay rises during leave (which can increase SMP), and linked periods of sickness are not modelled.

To see what statutory pay means for your monthly spending, hand your result to the budget planner. To compare with your usual payslip, use the take-home pay calculator.