The last thing new or expectant mums need is the worry that they will not receive the maternity pay they were expecting from their employer. At such an expensive time, every penny will usually be accounted for, and any change to your financial situation will be a cause for concern.
The good news is that if your employer has entered into liquidation or administration then your maternity pay will instead be paid by HM Revenue & Customs. HMRC pays at the statutory rate only. If your contract gave you enhanced maternity pay above that rate, the extra is a claim against the company, and it does not have any special priority of its own. Expect it to rank as an ordinary unsecured claim, which in an insolvent liquidation is often paid very little or nothing. That is the hard part of the answer, so read the next paragraph with it: your statutory maternity pay is in a different position and is normally paid in full, and the sections below explain how to claim it. Ask the office-holder to work out how much of what you are owed counts as preferential wages, and to tell you which items you can claim from the Redundancy Payments Service (statutory redundancy pay, and arrears of pay, holiday pay and statutory notice pay, all within the legal limits). Enhanced maternity pay above the statutory rate is a claim in the insolvency, made to the office-holder.
Some employee money does come higher up. Wages and salary for the four months before the insolvency are preferential, capped at £800 in total per employee, and accrued holiday pay is preferential without that cap. Whether any part of an enhanced maternity payment counts as wages for that purpose depends on the terms of the scheme and the period it relates to, so it is worth asking the insolvency practitioner rather than assuming either way.
How much maternity pay can you receive from HMRC?
To qualify for statutory maternity pay (SMP), you must have been continuously employed by the business for at least 26 weeks up to any day in the ‘qualifying week’. The qualifying week is the 15th week before the expected week of your child’s birth. Your average weekly earnings over the 8 weeks up to the end of the qualifying week must also be at least the lower earnings limit for National Insurance, and you must give your employer notice of when you want the pay to start, normally at least 28 days before. If you meet the qualifying criteria, statutory maternity pay will be paid for up to 39 weeks and you can expect to receive:
- 90 percent of your average weekly earnings for the first six weeks.
- £194.32 a week for 2026/27, or 90 per cent of your average weekly earnings if that is lower, for the next 33 weeks. The standard rate changes each April.
How should you claim maternity pay if your company closes down?
There are two separate routes, and it helps to keep them apart.
For statutory maternity pay from and including the week your employer became insolvent, HMRC takes over. Contact HMRC’s Statutory Payment Dispute Team as soon as you can, on 0300 322 9422, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm. HMRC checks your entitlement and then pays the statutory maternity pay due from the week of the insolvency to the end of your maternity pay period.
For other money the company owes you, including arrears of pay, holiday pay and statutory redundancy pay, claim through the Redundancy Payments Service online at claim.redundancy-payments.service.gov.uk. Notice pay is claimed through a separate service, called Claim for loss of notice pay, which GOV.UK links to from the same page. The insolvency practitioner gives you the case reference number, which begins CN, and you claim using that, your National Insurance number and an email address. Paper claim forms are no longer the route.
Unfortunately, not every case is quite so clear cut
Once a company has been declared insolvent, HMRC will cover the statutory maternity pay for the full term. However, until the week of the insolvency itself, all maternity payments should be paid by your employer. The problem comes if the employer does not have the funds to make maternity payments but is yet to officially enter insolvency.
If your employer is refusing to pay your statutory maternity pay and is not yet insolvent, HMRC’s Statutory Payment Dispute Team can decide the point. The number is 0300 322 9422, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm. To ask HMRC for a formal decision, you must apply in writing and send the application within six months of the first day of statutory maternity pay in dispute. HMRC asks you to try to resolve it with the employer first.
Once the company formally enters insolvency, HMRC picks up statutory maternity pay from and including the week of the insolvency. Ask the insolvency practitioner for the case reference number, then claim through the Redundancy Payments Service for statutory redundancy pay, up to 8 weeks’ arrears of pay, up to 6 weeks’ holiday pay and statutory notice pay, all subject to a weekly cap. Anything above those limits, including enhanced maternity pay, is a claim in the insolvency made to the office-holder.