Confused by contributions on maternity pay

BethRomz

Baby No2 is due end of March, I'm very fortunate to get full pay for 6 months, however the drop from full to SMP for the remaining 3 months is fairly dramatic but I'm budgeting for the shortfall so we don't feel the pinch quite as much.

As it stands I usually get paid around £3000 a month before the tax man has his slice and I also pay around £80 in pension contributions. I'm struggling to find anything definitive on how much I'll actually have left from the £139.58 per week. I'm assuming it will still get taxed and I'll still need to pay my pension contributions?? Do I go with the assumption that I'll be left with next to nothing so I should budget as if I'm on zero pay for 3 months? I never had SMP with my first so I have absolutely no idea how it works in practice.

Thanks

Darksparkle

It really depends on when in the tax year it happens etc but if for example from

- April to September, full pay
- October to December SMP
- January to March full pay

In the months you were on SMP you'd actually get some tax back so you'd probably have a take home pay of approx £603 per month.

That's on the assumption that you still pay into your pension, I'm not sure how this works. I just assumed it continues as normal.

Obviously would depend on all the exact figures.