Maternity Allowance and Universal Credit Calculator

Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance are both £194.32 a week at the standard rate in 2026/27, and Universal Credit treats them completely differently. SMP counts as earnings, so a work allowance protects part of it and the 55% taper applies to the rest. Maternity Allowance counts as unearned income, so every pound of it comes off the award. This calculator works out both from your earnings and shows the monthly Universal Credit next to each, and the difference.

It turns your pay into average weekly earnings, applies the 90% rule and the £129.00 SMP earnings limit, converts the weekly payment to an average month the way Universal Credit does, then runs the award with your household. If the baby has been born it adds the child element, £303.94 a month, which also brings a work allowance if you had none.

You cannot choose between the two: if you qualify for SMP your employer pays it. Maternity Allowance is for people who do not qualify for SMP but meet its own work and earnings test: employed or self-employed in at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the due week, earning £30.00 a week or more in at least 13 of them. If you are self-employed, or your employer has given you form SMP1, pick Maternity Allowance and the calculator shows that side alone.

Because Universal Credit puts them in different boxes. Regulation 55(4)(b) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 treats Statutory Maternity Pay as employed earnings, the same as wages. Regulation 66(1)(b)(viii) lists Maternity Allowance as unearned income, alongside benefits such as New Style ESA and Carer's Allowance. Regulation 22 then deducts all unearned income from the award, pound for pound, but only 55% of earned income above any work allowance. The two payments are the same £194.32 a week at the standard rate, £842.05 in an average month, and they leave you with very different totals. A single parent aged 25 or over with a new baby and no rent in the award has a maximum Universal Credit of £728.84. On SMP, the £710.00 work allowance protects most of it and Universal Credit is £656.21, so the month comes to £1,498.26. On Maternity Allowance the whole £842.05 comes off, Universal Credit is £0.00 and the month comes to £842.05. That gap, £656.21 a month, is the answer to "what is the point of Maternity Allowance if they take it off my Universal Credit?". Maternity Allowance is not worthless. Without it the month would be £728.84 of Universal Credit alone, so it still leaves this parent £113.21 better off, and it brings Class 1 National Insurance credits automatically. It just does not sit on top of Universal Credit the way SMP does.

SMP is paid by your employer for up to 39 weeks: 90% of your average weekly earnings, before tax, for the first 6 weeks with no upper limit, then £194.32 or 90% of your earnings, whichever is lower, for the remaining 33. To qualify you need average weekly earnings of at least £129.00 and 26 weeks' continuous employment with that employer by the qualifying week, the 15th week before the week the baby is due. It is paid like wages, with tax and National Insurance taken off. Maternity Allowance is paid by the Department for Work and Pensions for up to 39 weeks to anyone who cannot get SMP but has worked, employed or self-employed, in at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the due week, earning £30.00 a week or more in at least 13 of them. An employed claimant gets £194.32 or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for all 39 weeks. A self-employed claimant gets between £27.00 and £194.32, depending on how many weeks of Class 2 contributions were paid. It is not taxable. Both can start from 11 weeks before the due week. Statutory maternity leave is 52 weeks, so the last 13 are unpaid unless your contract pays more.

From the first day of the assessment period the baby is born in. A change of circumstances on Universal Credit takes effect from the start of the assessment period it happens in, under paragraph 20 of Schedule 1 to the Decisions and Appeals Regulations 2013, so a baby born on the last day of the period still brings a whole month's child element of £303.94. That depends on reporting the birth by the end of that assessment period: report it later and, under paragraph 21, the element starts from the period you report it in, unless DWP accepts a late report for special reasons (regulation 36). Since 6 April 2026 the two-child limit has ended, so a third or later baby gets the element too, which the Universal Credit Child Element Calculator totals for the whole family. The birth also changes the maths on maternity pay. With no other child on the claim, a work allowance only arrives with the baby, so SMP paid before the birth is tapered from the first pound. In the months before the birth, the same claimant with £500 of social rent in the award keeps £461.77 of Universal Credit on SMP and £82.85 on Maternity Allowance. From 11 weeks before the due week until 15 weeks after the birth you have no work-related requirements at all, under regulation 89(1)(c), and after that the parent who is the responsible carer of a child under 1 has none either.

Differently for each, which is why a month can come out a few pounds off what you expected. Maternity Allowance is converted by formula: regulation 73 multiplies a weekly payment by 52 and divides by 12, so £194.32 a week is £842.05 a month, and in the month it starts or stops only the days it covers are counted. SMP is earnings, and regulation 54 counts earnings actually received in the assessment period. If your employer pays SMP weekly or four-weekly, some assessment periods catch an extra payday, and Universal Credit is lower that month and higher the next. A monthly-paid SMP runs close to the £842.05 average this calculator uses. First-six-weeks SMP at 90% of a full wage can be high enough to take some or all of Universal Credit for a month or two, even though the 33 weeks after it leave most of the award in place.

A first baby usually brings a £500 Sure Start Maternity Grant in England, Wales and Northern Ireland if you or your partner get Universal Credit. Northern Ireland has its own claim form. Claim it from 11 weeks before the due week until 6 months after the birth. On a low income, being at least 10 weeks pregnant also brings Healthy Start payments. It does not have to be paid back and does not affect Universal Credit. If you already have children under 16 it is usually only paid for a multiple birth. In Scotland the Pregnancy and Baby Payment replaces it. Child Benefit is not counted as income for Universal Credit at all. If you pay for registered childcare for an older child, SMP and Maternity Allowance both count as paid work for the childcare costs element under regulation 32(2)(b) (for a couple, your partner must also be in paid work or unable to provide childcare, regulation 32(1)(b)), so the Childcare Costs Calculator still applies while you are on leave. A partner's Statutory Paternity Pay, and Statutory Shared Parental Pay, adoption pay and neonatal care pay, are all employed earnings under regulation 55(4), paid at the same £194.32 standard rate as SMP and counted the same way. This calculator is built on the rules for England, Scotland and Wales. In Northern Ireland, Maternity Allowance is paid at the same rates and nidirect says it reduces Universal Credit in the same way, but Universal Credit there runs under its own regulations.