Pensions and family leave

Pension contributions while on maternity leave: what changes in 2026

Updated 6 October 2026

From 2026, if you go on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave, you have these concrete rights about your workplace pension. Your employer must keep paying employer contributions throughout your entire period of paid maternity leave, calculated on the same pay basis as if you were at work. Your own employee contributions during any low pay period are based on what you actually earn in that period, which usually means very small or no contributions. Statutory maternity pay, statutory adoption pay and statutory shared parental pay all count as pay for pension purposes. If your employer fails to keep up contributions, you can raise it informally, through HR, or as a complaint to The Pensions Regulator.

Do my employer pension contributions continue on maternity leave in 2026

This is the single most common question people ask when they find out they are pregnant and they have a workplace pension. The short answer is yes, with some important detail.

Under the Pensions Act 2008, read together with the 2024 to 2026 family leave reforms that take effect through October 2026, your employer is required to continue making its normal percentage contributions to your workplace pension throughout any period of paid statutory maternity leave. The percentage is the same as the one applied to your normal pay, and the contributions are calculated on the basis of what your normal pay would have been, not on the lower rate of statutory maternity pay that you actually receive.

So if your employer normally pays 5 percent of your salary and you earn 36,000 pounds a year, the employer contribution while you are on statutory maternity leave works out at the rate of 5 percent of 36,000 pounds, even though your take home pay during that period is the lower statutory amount. The same rule applies to occupational maternity pay where your employer pays full pay for part of the leave, and to any enhanced or contractual maternity pay that tops up the statutory minimum.

The second piece of detail is about the first 26 weeks of additional maternity leave, sometimes called the second six months. During that period, statutory maternity pay is either the flat rate of about 187.18 pounds a week in 2026 to 2027, or nothing at all in the final weeks. The law still requires your employer to maintain its pension contribution, again based on your normal pay, for as long as you are on maternity leave. There is no point at which the obligation switches off.

The third piece of detail is about periods of unpaid maternity leave that the employer has agreed to, for example if you take a year of leave and the second six months is unpaid, or if you take a longer career break. The Pensions Regulator's existing guidance, reinforced in the 2026 framework, says that your employer should continue to fund its share of the contributions on your normal pay for any agreed period of unpaid leave that is treated as a continuous part of your maternity leave.

There is one area where the position has historically been less clear, and that is pure additional unpaid leave beyond the contractual or policy period, sometimes called extended leave or career break. From 2026 the framework tightens the default. If your contract of employment or your employer's family leave policy says that any such period is treated as a continuation of maternity leave for benefit purposes, the pension obligation continues. If the policy is silent, the default position from October 2026 is that the pension obligation continues for the first 12 months of any continuous family leave, including periods without statutory pay.

You can read the underlying position in the Pensions Regulator's detailed guidance for employers on automatic enrolment and family leave and in the Department for Business and Trade's 2026 family leave reforms summary. The trade union Prospect and the TUC have also published member briefings on the changes.

What about my own employee pension contributions on maternity leave

Your own employee contributions are handled differently from the employer's, because the law recognises that your actual take home pay during maternity leave is much lower than your normal salary.

Statutory maternity pay, statutory adoption pay and statutory shared parental pay are all treated as pensionable pay for the purpose of working out your employee contribution. The contribution you owe is the percentage your scheme requires, applied to the actual amount of statutory or occupational pay that you receive in that pay period. In practice, for the first six weeks of statutory maternity pay at 90 percent of normal pay, your contribution will be close to what it would normally be. For the remaining 33 weeks at the flat statutory rate, your contribution will be a much smaller pound amount.

Your employer can choose to require you to pay your employee contribution in full during paid leave, or it can choose to put any shortfall onto an interest free loan that is recovered from your pay when you return to work. Most employers do the second. If you are unsure which model your employer uses, ask HR for a copy of the maternity leave pension policy and the scheme's specific rules on employee contributions during family leave.

For periods of unpaid leave, your own contribution is usually suspended. The employer is not allowed to take a contribution from you that you have not been paid enough to cover, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise in writing. If you want to make additional voluntary contributions to keep your pension pot growing during a longer period of leave, you can usually do so by contacting the scheme directly or through your employer's HR portal.

One practical trap to watch for is the timing of the contributions. If your employer processes payroll late, or fails to update its pension contribution schedule when you go on leave, you may find that your pension record has a gap. When you return to work, ask for a printout of contributions made during the leave period and check it against the statutory pay dates.

Does this apply to adoption leave and shared parental leave

Yes. The 2026 framework applies the same rules to statutory adoption leave and to statutory shared parental leave, with mirroring for statutory paternity leave and statutory parental bereavement leave, although the latter are short periods and rarely affect pension accrual in practice.

For adoption, the employer pension contribution is paid throughout the whole 52 weeks of statutory adoption leave, calculated on the same basis as if you were at work. For shared parental leave, the obligation applies throughout any period of shared parental leave that you take in the first year after the birth or placement, including blocks and shared parental leave in touch days.

For unpaid parental leave, the 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave that each parent can take, the picture is different. The general rule before 2026 was that unpaid parental leave is not pensionable unless the contract or scheme rules say so. The 2026 changes add a presumption that, where an employee has agreed unpaid parental leave immediately following a period of maternity or adoption leave, the employer will continue pension contributions for the first block of unpaid parental leave. The presumption can be displaced by the scheme rules or by the contract, but only explicitly, and not by silence.

For neonatal care leave, which is a separate day one right from 6 October 2026, the position is the same. Your employer must keep paying its share of pension contributions while you are on neonatal care leave, on the basis of what you would have earned. This is a relatively short leave for most families, but the rule still matters because it means a period of neonatal care leave cannot create a hole in your pension record.

What if I am on a salary sacrifice or matched contribution scheme

Many employers run salary sacrifice arrangements for pensions, where you agree to give up a slice of your pre-tax salary in exchange for a bigger employer contribution. The 2026 framework includes a specific rule to deal with the fact that statutory maternity pay and statutory adoption pay are not salary sacrificeable in the usual sense.

Where you have a salary sacrifice arrangement in place before you go on leave, your employer is required to keep paying the sacrificed amount of your salary into the pension scheme, but it cannot take the equivalent sum from your statutory pay, because statutory pay is fixed by law. The cost of the sacrificed amount therefore falls on the employer. The TUC has produced a model policy on this, and ACAS has indicated that it expects employers to absorb the cost rather than pass it to the employee.

For matched contribution schemes, where the employer matches your own contribution up to a cap, the matching continues on the basis of your actual pay during paid leave. If your actual pay is lower because of statutory rates, the matched amount will be lower. This is one of the few areas where the 2026 framework does not give you the same treatment as if you were at work, and it is worth thinking about before you go on leave if maximising pension building is a priority for you.

Some employers offer a one off top up at the end of maternity leave to compensate for the difference. This is not required by law, but it is a reasonable thing to ask for and is increasingly common in larger schemes.

How do I challenge my employer if contributions stop

If you go on maternity leave and your pension contributions stop or reduce unexpectedly, there are a few routes to fix the problem. The order in which you use them matters, because time limits apply to some but not all of them.

Step one is to raise it informally with HR and with the payroll team. Mistakes are common, especially in the first few pay cycles after a change. Ask for written confirmation of what has been paid, what was due, and when the position will be corrected. A short email saying please confirm the schedule of pension contributions for the duration of my maternity leave is enough to start the clock on a written record.

Step two is to raise a formal grievance under your employer's grievance procedure if the issue is not resolved within a couple of pay cycles. The grievance forces the employer to follow a formal process and to put its response in writing. Keep copies of everything.

Step three is to complain to The Pensions Regulator. The Pensions Regulator can investigate employer breaches of the automatic enrolment regime, including failures to pay employer contributions, and it can issue compliance notices and escalate to fines. The complaint form is on the regulator's website and is employee accessible. There is no fee, and the process is confidential.

Step four is to bring a claim in the employment tribunal. Failure to maintain employer pension contributions during family leave can be a breach of contract, an unlawful deduction from wages, and a detriment claim under section 18 of the Equality Act 2010 because of the protected characteristic of pregnancy and maternity. From October 2026 the tribunal time limit for an unlawful deduction from wages claim is six months from the date of the deduction, and the time limit for a pregnancy and maternity detriment claim is three months. The two can run in parallel.

You may also want to talk to your scheme trustees or administrator to make sure that the missing contributions are flagged on your record and that the late payment is not used as an excuse by the scheme to refuse a future claim.

What to do in the meantime

While you are pregnant or planning adoption, do three things now. First, ask HR for the employer's written policy on pension contributions during family leave, and check whether the policy covers paid leave, unpaid leave, salary sacrifice and any period beyond 52 weeks. If the policy is silent or out of date, raise it now and ask for a written commitment that the 2026 rules will be applied.

Second, ask for a projection of the contributions that will be made during your leave, broken down by week, including the employer share, your employee share, and any top up or compensation. This gives you something concrete to check against when you return to work.

Third, think about whether you want to make additional voluntary contributions during longer periods of unpaid leave, and confirm with the scheme how those payments can be made. Voluntary contributions are usually a clean way to fill a gap without relying on the employer.

Keep your own record of the contributions you would have expected, the actual contributions shown on your payslips and your annual pension statement, and any emails or notes from HR. If a dispute arises later, this is the evidence that will make the difference between a quick fix and a long fight.

If you are a member of a trade union, raise the issue with your rep early. From 30 October 2026 you have a stronger right to time off for trade union duties, and pension queries during family leave are exactly the kind of issue that union reps are expected to support.