All employed women have an entitlement to a total of 52 weeks of maternity leave. This is regardless of their length of service. They don’t need to qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) to be able to take maternity leave. For more information, read Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP).

If the employee meets all qualifying conditions, you’re obliged to pay the statutory rate of SMP. You can pay any further wages on top of the statutory pay. This will depend on the employee’s contract of employment. You’re under no statutory obligation to pay anything further.

For employees who qualify, SMP is payable for 39 weeks. This consists of:

• Six weeks at the higher rate, which is 90% of the employee’s Average Weekly Earnings (AWE)
• £184.03 (24/25), £187.18 (25/26) a week or 90% of their AWE for the next 33 weeks, whichever is lower

The AWE calculates using the employee earnings. It uses the period over the eight weeks before the qualifying week. This includes all payments subject to NI, not only their basic salary. Payroll calculates the figure based on the information you enter.

For further support in calculating SMP you can use HMRC's online calculator.

You can find further information from HMRC by reading Statutory Maternity Pay and Leave: employer guide.

 TIP: Payroll calculates SMP in whole weeks only, from the leave start date. For example, the leave starts on Wednesday. The week would be from Wednesday to the following Tuesday. 

Can't calculate the AWE

Sometimes, there's no history to calculate the AWE. This can happen if you have moved to Sage Payroll from another software provider.

You will have to calculate the AWE yourself. It is your responsibility to ensure this is correct.

For more informaion, read Recording Statutory Maternity Pay.