NI17A - A guide to Maternity Benefits
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
Introduction
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is a weekly payment made by employers to their employees or former employees. Employers pay SMP to those women who have been employed by them prior to becoming pregnant. Qualifying women are entitled to SMP whether or not they intend to return to work for that employer.
If your EWC is on or before 31 March 2007, SMP can be paid for a maximum of
26 weeks.
If your EWC is on or after 1 April 2007, SMP can be paid for a maximum of 39
weeks.
The important date for working out how long SMP can be paid for is the date your baby is due not when your baby is actually born.
Examples:
EWC: 28 March 2007 - baby is born earlier on 15 February 2007, SMP will be
paid for 26 weeks.
EWC: 28 March 2007 - baby is born later on 1 April 2007, SMP will be paid
for 26 weeks.
EWC: 2 April 2007 - baby is born earlier on 16 March 2007, SMP will be paid
for 39 weeks.
The amount of SMP you get depends on how much you earn.
So if you were not employed in your pregnancy you cannot get SMP. But you may be able to get Maternity Allowance (MA) from your Jobcentre Plus.
If you think you may be entitled to SMP, please read the following pages very carefully. The terminology pages should help you if you forget the meanings of any of the abbreviations or technical phrases.
Before you read on, it may help if you work out the date of the start of your qualifying week. This is a very important date.
The qualifying week is the 15th week before the week in which your baby is due. The definition of a week for the qualifying week is a period of 7 days that begins at midnight between Saturday and Sunday.
Generally, the definition of a week in this guide is a period of 7 days that begins at midnight between Saturday and Sunday. But if your SMP starts on a day of the week other than a Sunday, then a week in your Maternity Pay Period (MPP) means a period of seven days starting from the day of the week your MPP began. For example, if your MPP started on a Thursday, weeks in your MPP run from Thursday to Wednesday.