Maternity leave is one of the biggest financial adjustments most women will make. Statutory pay drops to £194.32 a week after your first six weeks. If you're used to a full salary, that gap is real, and it can be stressful if you haven't planned for it.
This guide covers the practical things that actually help — from planning your budget before you leave, to the benefits you might not know you're entitled to, to the parts nobody usually thinks about (like what to do about your wardrobe without spending money you don't have).
We ran a financial education session with the brilliant team at Nugget Savings, and this guide pulls together everything that came up. Consider it the version you'd want from a mum who's been there.
💡 Did you know
Most women on maternity leave are entitled to more financial support than they claim from Child Benefit worth over £1,400 a year, to free NHS prescriptions, to Universal Credit. The money is there. It just doesn't come automatically.
Start the conversation early with your partner
This sounds obvious. It often gets skipped.
The most useful thing you can do before your baby arrives is sit down with your partner and talk honestly about what your finances will look like month by month. Before the baby arrives. Not after, when you're both sleep-deprived and making decisions on less than four hours' sleep.
Things to cover:
- What will each of you be paid during your respective leave?
- How will you split household bills? Equal, proportional, or will the partner on higher income cover more?
- Are you both saving, or is the saving falling entirely to the person going on leave? (It shouldn't be — a baby is a shared financial responsibility.)
- What spending genuinely matters to each of you? Budget for the things that keep you sane. Coffee with a friend, a gym membership, a holiday. Stripping all enjoyment out of twelve months is a fast route to misery.
📕 Nugget Savings has a free Parental Leave Planner that walks you through this properly. It's worth downloading before you get to your last trimester.
Know your maternity pay — properly
A lot of women get to mat leave without fully understanding what they'll actually be paid. Here's how it works in 2026.
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is the legal minimum if you've worked for your employer for at least 26 weeks before your qualifying week, and you earn at least £129 a week on average.
- First 6 weeks: 90% of your average weekly earnings before tax
- Weeks 7 to 39: £194.32 per week, or 90% of your average earnings — whichever is lower
- Weeks 40 to 52: unpaid, if you choose to take the full year
Enhanced maternity pay is anything your employer offers on top of that. Around two thirds of UK employers offer some form of enhancement, but policies vary enormously — from a few extra weeks at full pay to six months or more. Check your contract, your staff handbook, or ask HR directly. If there's no policy in writing, that's worth raising.
Maternity Allowance applies if you don't qualify for SMP — for example, if you were already pregnant when you started a new job, or if you're self-employed. It's paid by the DWP at up to £194.32 per week for 39 weeks and is not taxable.
A few things worth checking on your SMP:
- Pension contributions: your employer's pension contributions should stay at your pre-leave level while you're on mat leave. Only your own contributions drop to match your mat pay. This is frequently calculated incorrectly, and it costs women thousands of pounds when compound growth is factored in. Check.
- KIT days: you can work up to 10 Keeping in Touch days during mat leave without it affecting your pay. These must be paid — ideally at your normal day rate, though legally only at minimum wage. Worth clarifying with your employer before you go.
- Holiday: you keep accruing annual leave throughout mat leave. That can amount to a full month's worth. Think about when you want to use it — many women tack it onto the end of mat leave, or use it to ease the return to work with a few days a week rather than going straight back full time.
Baby purchases: what to actually spend on
The urge to buy everything before the baby arrives is real. Resist it, or at least be strategic about it.
Newborns don't need much, and they outgrow things fast. The only items universally recommended to buy new are a car seat (safety depends on knowing its history) and a cot mattress (same reason). Everything else — prams, Moses baskets, cribs, bouncers, swings — can be borrowed or bought secondhand without any compromise.
Facebook Marketplace and eBay are genuinely excellent for this. A next-to-me crib that retails for £200 regularly appears for around £40-50. And you'd be contributing to the circular economy rather than buying new products that get used for four months and then sit in a loft.
What people consistently underestimate is what they need, not just the baby. Good maternity bras (more than one). Postpartum essentials for recovery. Feeding clothes that actually work at 3am. These get deprioritised in the rush to buy the pram and the nursery furniture, but they matter more to your day-to-day experience.
Your maternity wardrobe: the bit nobody plans for
This one comes up every time we talk to women about mat leave finances. It's often the last thing on the list, and it ends up being unexpectedly expensive.
Maternity clothes for pregnancy, plus postpartum clothes that work for your actual postpartum body (which is not the same as your pre-pregnancy body), plus anything feeding-friendly if you're breastfeeding — it adds up quickly if you're buying everything new. And most of it, you'll only wear for a season.
This is where renting genuinely makes financial sense. With For The Creators' Maternity Wardrobe Membership, you access 4 or 6 pieces at a time from 70+ brands, swap as your body changes, and return when you're done. No guessing whether something will still fit in six weeks. No wardrobe full of things you bought in the third trimester that don't work postpartum.
A wardrobe worth over £500, from £75 a month. And your first month is 50% off.
It's not a compromise version of getting dressed. It's the version that actually makes sense when you're managing a budget during mat leave and your body is doing something different every few weeks.
A word on childcare costs start planning before you go back
One thing that consistently catches women off guard is the childcare cost when they return to work. It's worth modelling this before you go on mat leave, not when you're in your last few weeks of leave and scrambling.
For 2026, the funded childcare offer in England is 30 hours per week from the term after your child turns nine months, for working parents. But 30 hours is based on term time — spread across the year, it's closer to 22 hours. Most nurseries also add consumable charges on top, so the "free" element rarely means zero cost.
Tax-Free Childcare gives a 25% top-up on childcare payments, up to £2,000 per year per child. Both parents need to earn at least £2,643 per quarter and under £100,000 each to qualify. You can apply in the last 31 days of mat leave if you're due to return to work — so don't wait until you're actually back.
Check the childcare figures before you decide how long to take off, and whether it's worth returning full time or part time. For some households, the maths on full-time childcare changes the return-to-work calculation significantly.
Quick checklist: before you go on mat leave
Understand your exact maternity pay month by month — including when SMP drops and whether you have any unpaid months
Speak to your employer about pension contributions, KIT days, and holiday accrual
Apply for Child Benefit within three months of the birth
Check eligibility for Universal Credit once your income drops
Check you have your Maternity Exemption Certificate (England)
Plan your wardrobe — don't overbuy new. Borrow, buy secondhand, or rent
Model your childcare costs before you return to work
Have the money conversation with your partner — both of you should be saving for this
