Changes to Statutory Maternity Payments (SMP)

Will recent legislative changes to SMP affect your employees?

The Work and Families Act of 2006 has introduced some fundamental changes to Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) for babies born on or after 1 April 2007.

Please make use of Ceridian's interactive SMP date calculator to assess your eligibility for SMP.

What do the changes entail?

    Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)

The maternity pay period, for which SMP is payable, has now been extended from 26 weeks to 39 weeks. What this means is that SMP will be paid as follows:

  • The first six weeks = 90% of average weekly earnings.
  • The remaining weeks = either the standard rate of SMP or the earnings related rate, whichever is lower.

The standard rate of SMP has also increased – previously £108.85 per week, now £112.75 per week.

Is she eligible for SMP?

If your employee fell pregnant before starting to work for your company or if she doesn't earn the national insurance lower earnings limit (previously £84 a week rising to £87 per week since 6 April 2007), she will not be entitled to SMP.

However, she may be eligible to claim Maternity Allowance (MA) – this is a state benefit paid directly by the government to the employee.

The payment period for MA has also been extended for babies who have been born since 1 April 2007. Mothers of babies born from 1 April 2007 are entitled to 52 weeks leave – this is applicable to your employees, whether or not she qualifies for SMP.

Babies due on or before 31 March 2007

If your employee continues to work after the 11th week before the week her baby is due, SMP will usually start from the Sunday following the day she stopped work to have the baby.

Babies due on or after 1 April 2007

If your employee continues to work after the 11th week before the week her baby is due, she can choose when she wants her SMP to start. SMP will start from any day she chooses, once she has stopped work to have her baby. This means that her SMP should start from the first day of her maternity leave.

Changes that will affect the start of SMP

The start of your employee’s SMP will change if:

  • her baby is born before the start of the 11th week or before the start of her SMP pay period. If this happens, SMP will start from the day following the birth of her baby.
  • she is off sick from work with a pregnancy-related illness at the start of or in the 4 weeks before her baby is due, SMP will start from the day following the first complete day she is off sick from work for that reason.

If she is entitled to SMP and leaves your employment:

  • after the start of the 15th week before her baby is due but before the start of the 11th week – SMP will start from the beginning of the 11th week before the week her baby is due.
  • at any time after the start of the 11th week before the week her baby is due and before the start of her maternity pay period, her SMP will start from:
    • the Sunday after she leaves employment, if her baby was due on or after 31 March 2007; or
    • the day after she leaves employment, if her baby was due on or after 1 April 2007.

Returning to work before the end of her SMP?

Normally, she will lose one week’s SMP for each week or part week that she works under your contract. For women with babies due on or after 1 April 2007, the rules will change.

Employees with babies due on or after 1 April 2007, will be allowed to work up to a maximum of 10 days without losing SMP. These days will be called Keeping in Touch days (KIT). However, if she works for more than 10 days, she will lose one week’s SMP for each week or part week that she works for you. This also means that if she works her 10th KIT day and does a further day’s work in the same week, she will lose SMP for that week, as she would have exceeded the 10 day maximum in that week.

Still confused?

Use our interactive SMP date calculator to clarify your relevant statutory entitlements.

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