Maternity Allowance Calculator 2026/27 — How Much MA Will I Get?

Maternity Allowance (MA) is a benefit paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to pregnant women and new mothers who cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) from an employer. It exists precisely for the people the employer-paid SMP scheme leaves out: the self-employed, women who have recently changed jobs or stopped working, agency and casual workers, and those who earn too little to qualify for SMP. If your employer has turned you down for SMP, or you work for yourself, this is almost certainly the maternity payment you should be claiming.

This calculator uses the 2026/27 rates confirmed on GOV.UK. The standard weekly rate of Maternity Allowance is £194.32 a week, or 90% of your average weekly earnings — whichever is lower — paid for up to 39 weeks. The figures below are an estimate to help you plan; your actual award is decided by the DWP from the MA1 claim form and the evidence you provide.

Maternity Allowance vs Statutory Maternity Pay — Who Gets Which?

The single most common source of confusion is mistaking Maternity Allowance for Statutory Maternity Pay. They are two separate schemes, paid by different bodies, with different qualifying rules. You can only ever receive one of them — never both — so it matters that you claim the right one.

In short: if you have a single, settled employer and have been there long enough, you will usually get SMP. If you are self-employed, have recently moved jobs, juggle several small jobs, or your employer says you do not qualify for SMP, Maternity Allowance is the route for you. If you are an employee unsure which applies, start with our Statutory Maternity Pay calculator first, and fall back to Maternity Allowance if you do not meet the SMP service test.

Who Qualifies for Maternity Allowance? The 26-Week Test Period

Eligibility for Maternity Allowance is based on a 66-week window called the test period. The test period is the 66 weeks immediately before the week your baby is due. The DWP looks back across these 66 weeks to check two things — how much you worked, and how much you earned.

The work test (26 weeks). You must have been employed or self-employed for at least 26 weeks in the 66-week test period. Crucially, these 26 weeks do not have to be consecutive, and they do not have to be with the same employer. You can add together part-weeks, different jobs, agency placements, and self-employment, with periods of unemployment in between. This is what makes MA accessible to people with irregular or patchwork working lives.

The earnings test (£30 a week). In at least 13 of the 66 weeks — again, not necessarily consecutive — you must have earned, or been treated as earning, at least £30 a week on average. The DWP lets you pick your best-paid 13 weeks, so you only need 13 reasonable weeks across the whole 66, not 13 in a row.

You may qualify for MA whether you are still working, have recently stopped, or have changed jobs several times. The self-employed qualify if they have been registered with HMRC across the test period. Even people who are not paid but do unpaid work for the business of a self-employed spouse or civil partner can claim a special 14-week version of Maternity Allowance.

How Much Maternity Allowance Will I Get in 2026/27?

The amount of Maternity Allowance you receive depends on your earnings and your employment status. There are essentially three outcomes.

The 90% rule explained. If you are employed or recently stopped working and you earn less than around £216 a week, your 90% figure will come out below £194.32 — so you receive 90% of your earnings. For example, average weekly earnings of £180 give an MA of £162.00 a week (90% of £180). If you earn more than that, 90% of your pay exceeds the cap, so the £194.32 flat rate applies instead. Maternity Allowance is tax-free and does not count as earnings, but it does count as income for some means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit.

Self-Employed and Class 2 National Insurance — The £27 Rate

Maternity Allowance is the only meaningful maternity payment available to self-employed women, because the self-employed cannot receive Statutory Maternity Pay. How much you get depends entirely on your Class 2 National Insurance record during the test period.

If you have paid enough Class 2 NI — that is, you are treated as having paid Class 2 contributions for at least 13 of the 66 test-period weeks — you receive the full standard rate of £194.32 a week, exactly as an employee on the cap would.

If you have not paid enough Class 2 NI, the DWP pays a reduced rate. The minimum is £27 a week, and it rises towards £194.32 depending on how many qualifying contributions are on your record. This catches people whose self-employed profits have been below the Small Profits Threshold, who may not have been paying Class 2 automatically.

The key tip: if you are on the £27 rate only because of missing Class 2 contributions, you can usually pay the missing Class 2 NI early when you claim. HMRC will write to you, and paying those contributions can lift your award from £27 all the way up to the full £194.32 a week — a difference of over £6,500 across the 39 weeks. Always check this before accepting a low award.

How Long Is Maternity Allowance Paid — and When Does It Start?

Maternity Allowance is paid for up to 39 weeks. If you take the full 52 weeks of maternity leave that employees are entitled to, the final 13 weeks would be unpaid — MA does not run for the whole year.

When it can start. You can choose to start your Maternity Allowance any time from the 11th week before your baby is due, up to the day after the baby is born. Many mothers start it close to their due date to make the 39 weeks of payment stretch further into the period after the birth. If the baby arrives early, or you are off work with a pregnancy-related illness in the four weeks before the due date, payments can be triggered automatically.

Maternity Allowance is paid straight into your bank account, usually every 2 or 4 weeks. It is tax-free, so the amount the calculator shows is what actually lands in your account — there is no tax or National Insurance to deduct.

How to Claim Maternity Allowance — the MA1 Form

You claim Maternity Allowance using the MA1 claim form, available from GOV.UK. You can fill it in online and print it, print a blank copy to complete by hand, or order one by post if you cannot print. You can apply once you have been pregnant for 26 weeks, and payments can begin from 11 weeks before the due date.

What you need to send with the MA1:

• Proof of your income — original payslips if employed, or evidence of self-employed earnings.
• Proof of the baby's due date — your MATB1 maternity certificate from your midwife or doctor (issued from about 20 weeks of pregnancy), or a letter confirming the due date.
• Your SMP1 form if an employer has refused you Statutory Maternity Pay — this shows the DWP why you are claiming MA instead.
• If claiming on the basis of unpaid work for a spouse or civil partner's business, details of that work.

The DWP usually makes a decision within around 20 working days. Claim within 3 months of the date you want your Maternity Allowance to start, otherwise you may lose money. Sending the MA1 in good time — soon after you receive your MATB1 — is the safest approach.

Worked Example: Self-Employed Mother on £180 a Week

Aisha is a self-employed graphic designer. She has been registered with HMRC for the last three years, so she easily passes the work test (26 of the 66 weeks) and the earnings test (£30+ in 13 weeks). Her average weekly self-employed profit works out at £180 a week.

Scenario A — she has paid her Class 2 NI. Because she has paid Class 2 National Insurance for at least 13 of the test-period weeks, Aisha qualifies for the full standard rate of £194.32 a week. Over the 39 weeks that comes to £194.32 × 39 = £7,578.48, an average of roughly £842 a month. Her actual earnings being below the cap does not matter for the self-employed-with-Class-2 route — she gets the flat rate.

Scenario B — she has not paid enough Class 2 NI. If Aisha's profits had been under the Small Profits Threshold and she had not paid Class 2, the DWP would offer only the £27 lower rate — just £1,053 over 39 weeks. The fix: HMRC lets her pay the missing Class 2 contributions early, which lifts her award back up to the full £194.32 a week. That single step is worth more than £6,500 to her, which is why checking your Class 2 record before you claim is so important.

Maternity Allowance and Other Benefits

Maternity Allowance is not means-tested, so your partner's income and your savings do not affect whether you get it or how much. However, MA does count as income when other means-tested benefits are calculated. If you receive Universal Credit, your Maternity Allowance is deducted pound-for-pound from your UC award, which can leave some families no better off overall — though MA still has the advantage of not being subject to work-search conditions.

Receiving Maternity Allowance also gives you National Insurance credits, which protect your State Pension record while you are not working. It is always worth modelling your wider household position: use our Universal Credit entitlement calculator to see how MA interacts with UC, our Child Benefit calculator for the payment you can claim once the baby arrives, and our salary calculator if you are weighing up a return to work.