Contractual maternity or adoption pay

The employment contract may contain more generous terms for payment of contractual maternity or adoption pay, which may have been collectively agreed by your union.

SMP is payable whether or not a woman returns to work. By contrast, there is nothing to stop an employer making more generous contractual maternity schemes conditional on an employee returning to work for a set period, and repayable (except as to the SMP element) if the woman does not return to work (Handels-og Kontorfunktionaerernes C-66/96 [1999] IRLR 55). This kind of arrangement is not unusual .

Any pay increase awarded between the start of the 15th week before the due date and the end of the maternity leave period must be taken into account when calculating the earnings-related part of SMP, even if the pay rise was not backdated to the eight-week reference period.