Maternity leave end date calculator
Enter the date your maternity leave started and how much you are taking, and this gives your last day of leave, your return date, and the notice deadline to come back early. It covers the compulsory period after birth and the point where pay stops before leave does.
Maternity leave end date calculator
No sign-up · PrivateThe actual first day of leave, which may not be the day you planned — leave starts automatically the day after the birth if your baby arrives early, and a pregnancy-related absence in the last weeks before the due date can trigger it too.
Statutory Maternity Leave is 52 weeks and you do not have to take all of it. The minimum is the compulsory period after the birth.
Optional. Used only to date the compulsory leave period, which runs from the birth rather than from the start of your leave.
It changes the compulsory period after the birth from 2 weeks to 4.
Your first day back at work
Your last day of leave is 8 July 2027 — one day earlier. Statutory pay is expected to stop on 8 April 2027, leaving 13 unpaid weeks before that.
Leave started: Friday 10 July 2026
Last day of maternity leave: Thursday 8 July 2027
First day back at work: Friday 9 July 2027 — or your next working day if that falls on a day you do not work. Your last day of leave and your first day back are one day apart, and confusing them is the most common error here.
Leave taken: 52 weeks of the 52 available — the full entitlement.
Ordinary Maternity Leave ends: 7 January 2027 — the first 26 weeks. After that you are in Additional Maternity Leave. The distinction matters for your rights on return: after Ordinary Maternity Leave you are entitled to return to the same job, while after Additional Maternity Leave your employer may offer a suitable similar role if it is not reasonably practicable to give you the same one.
Statutory Maternity Pay expected to stop: 8 April 2027 — SMP runs for up to 39 weeks. This assumes your maternity pay period started with your leave.
Unpaid block: 13 weeks from 9 April 2027 to 8 July 2027, unless your employer’s own scheme goes further. This is the single most important date on the page for planning purposes — 13 weeks without income arriving at the end of a year when spending has already increased is a significant thing to meet unprepared.
Compulsory leave after the birth: 2 weeks from 10 July 2026 to 23 July 2026. That period is not waivable — your employer commits an offence by letting you work through it.
Notice needed: None. You are taking the full 52 weeks, so your employer already knows the date. Notice is only needed to come back EARLIER — at least 8 weeks of it.
Keeping in touch days: Up to 10 days may be worked during your leave by agreement, without ending the leave or losing your maternity pay for that week. They are voluntary in both directions — your employer cannot require them and you cannot insist on them. Agree in advance whether and how they are paid.
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How this is calculated
FormulaHow the end date is worked out
The arithmetic is simple. The traps are in the rules around it, particularly the gap between when pay stops and when leave stops, which catches a great many people out.
Step 1 — the entitlement
Statutory Maternity Leave in the UK is 52 weeks. GOV.UK describes it as made up of Ordinary Maternity Leave, the first 26 weeks, and Additional Maternity Leave, the last 26 weeks.
You do not have to take all 52 weeks. But you must take 2 weeks' leave after your baby is born, or 4 weeks if you work in a factory. That compulsory period is not waivable, and the tool shows it as a fixed block at the start.
Step 2 — the end date
last day of leave = leave start date + weeks taken − 1 day, and
return date = leave start date + weeks taken, adjusted to your next working day.
If you take the full entitlement, that is 52 weeks from the day your leave started. The tool prints both the final day of leave and the first day back, because confusing the two by one day is the most common error and the one most likely to produce an awkward conversation with an employer.
Step 3 — when leave started, which may not be when you chose
Normally the earliest you can start leave is 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth. But leave can start earlier than planned without your choosing it: it starts automatically if the baby arrives early, and it can be triggered by a pregnancy-related absence in the final weeks before the due date. Because the end date is calculated from the actual start, an early birth moves your return date earlier too.
Step 4 — pay and leave are different lengths
This is the part worth checking before planning finances. Statutory Maternity Pay runs for up to 39 weeks, while leave runs for 52. If you take the full entitlement, the final 13 weeks are unpaid unless your employer's own scheme goes further.
The tool marks the date pay is expected to stop separately from the date leave ends, so the unpaid block is visible rather than a surprise in month ten.
Step 5 — changing your return date
If you simply take the full 52 weeks, you need give no notice; your employer already knows the date. If you want to return earlier, you must give your employer at least 8 weeks' notice. The tool works backwards from any earlier return date you enter and shows the deadline for telling them.
Keeping in touch days sit alongside this: up to 10 days may be worked during leave by agreement without ending the leave or losing pay for that week. They are optional on both sides — your employer cannot require them and you cannot insist on them.
Scope
These are the UK statutory minimums as published on GOV.UK. Your contract may be more generous and, where it is, your employer's scheme governs. Other countries work entirely differently, and this tool does not model them.
When does my maternity leave end?
Maternity leave is one of those things that feels enormous at the start and then arrives at its end far sooner than expected, usually at the same moment as childcare arrangements, a return-to-work conversation and a financial reckoning. Knowing the actual dates well ahead makes all three easier.
Fifty-two weeks, in two halves
Statutory Maternity Leave in the UK is 52 weeks, split into Ordinary Maternity Leave for the first 26 weeks and Additional Maternity Leave for the second 26. The distinction matters mainly for your rights on return: after Ordinary Maternity Leave you are entitled to return to the same job, while after Additional Maternity Leave your employer may offer a suitable similar role if it is not reasonably practicable to give you the same one.
You are not obliged to take all of it, and many people do not. The only fixed requirement is at the start: you must take two weeks off after your baby is born, or four weeks if you work in a factory. That compulsory period exists for health reasons and cannot be waived.
Counting to the end date
The end date is 52 weeks from the day your leave started, if you take the lot. The distinction between your last day of leave and your first day back is worth being precise about, because employers work from the return date and parents tend to think in terms of the last day off. They are one day apart and confusing them creates avoidable friction.
Your leave may have started before you planned
The earliest you can normally begin leave is eleven weeks before the expected week of childbirth, and most people choose a date somewhere after that. But the start date is not always yours to control.
If your baby arrives before your planned start date, leave begins the day after the birth. And a pregnancy-related absence from work in the last few weeks before your due date can trigger the start of maternity leave automatically. Since the end date is calculated forward from the actual start, an early arrival pulls your return date earlier as well — which surprises people who assumed the clock started when the baby did.
Pay stops before leave does
This is the single most important thing on the page for planning purposes. Statutory Maternity Pay runs for up to 39 weeks. Leave runs for 52. If you take the full entitlement, the last 13 weeks are unpaid unless your employer's own scheme is more generous.
Thirteen weeks without income arriving at the end of a year when spending has already increased is a significant thing to meet unprepared. Work out where that date falls early, and check your contract, because many employers offer enhanced schemes that pay more for longer, often with a condition about returning to work for a minimum period afterwards.
Coming back earlier than planned
If you decide to return before the end of your leave, you must give your employer at least eight weeks' notice. Counting backwards from your intended return date matters here: deciding in the same week that you would like to be back next Monday does not work, and the eight weeks is the employer's entitlement rather than a courtesy.
If you are taking the full 52 weeks, no notice is needed, because the date is already known. Extending beyond 52 weeks is not a maternity leave question at all — it means unpaid leave or annual leave by agreement, or in some cases shared parental leave arranged differently.
Keeping in touch days
You may work up to ten keeping in touch days during your leave without bringing the leave to an end or losing your maternity pay for that week. They can be used for training, a team day, a handover, or easing back in before the full return.
They are voluntary in both directions. Your employer cannot make you work them and you cannot demand them. What is worth agreeing in advance is whether and how they are paid, because the statutory position does not require any particular arrangement beyond not losing your maternity pay for that week.
Annual leave is still accruing
A detail that is easy to miss and worth real money: you continue to build up annual leave throughout maternity leave, including the unpaid portion. For a full year of leave that is a full year's holiday entitlement sitting unused.
Many people add it to the end of their maternity leave, effectively extending the time off on full pay, or take it to soften the return by working reduced weeks. Either way it needs agreeing with your employer, and it is worth raising in the same conversation as your return date rather than afterwards.
Before you go back
You have the right to request flexible working, and the return from maternity leave is the most common moment to do it. Requests should be made in good time, since employers have a period in which to respond and any change usually needs to be agreed before your first day back rather than negotiated during it.
If you are breastfeeding, tell your employer in writing before you return. That triggers obligations around rest facilities and a risk assessment. And if anything about your treatment on return feels wrong — a changed role, a demotion, pressure over the date — maternity rights are legally protected, and free advice is available from ACAS and from Citizens Advice.
Scope of this calculator
Everything here is the UK statutory minimum as published on GOV.UK. Contracts can be more generous and, where yours is, it takes precedence. If you are in Northern Ireland some administrative details differ, and outside the UK the system will be entirely different. Check your own contract alongside these dates, because the statutory floor is often not the whole picture.
Sources
- Maternity pay and leave: leave — GOV.UK, accessed
- Maternity pay and leave: pay — GOV.UK, accessed
- Maternity pay and leave: overview — GOV.UK, accessed
- Statutory Maternity Pay and Leave: employer guide — GOV.UK, accessed
- Flexible working — GOV.UK, accessed