Guidance

Maternity benefits: technical guidance

Find out about the 2 maternity benefits available under the social security scheme: Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance.

Document

Ref: NI17A HTML

A guide to the 2 maternity benefits available to women under the social security scheme:

This includes how the maternity benefits are worked out, the eligibility rules and when these benefits may be paid.

Published: 1 April 2013

Updated: 26 March 2015

26 March 2015 N17A updated to reflect National Insurance contribution changes (NICs) for the self-employed.
15 December 2014 Updated to take account of the new Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme.
1 April 2014 Revisions have been published to the Maternity benefits technical guidance to include the introduction on 1 April 2014 of Maternity Allowance for women who are not employed or self-employed, their baby is due on or after 27 July 2014, and they take part in the business of their self-employed spouse or civil partner.
1 April 2013 First published.