How will maternity or parental leave affect my pension?

All pregnant employees are entitled to maternity leave - (see the rights section of workSMART for more on maternity leave.) Your contract of employment may give a longer period than the legal minimums as of right.

If you are a member of a salary related scheme you should build up your pension as normal while you are on maternity leave, only paying contributions calculated on the maternity pay you receive from your employer. If any calculations need to be done about your salary for pension purposes while you are on maternity leave (if for example you resign) your salary would be taken as if you were still at work normally.

Your length of service in the scheme will not be affected. You will be treated as if you were at work during your maternity leave.

In a money purchase scheme your employer should continue to pay the same contributions, but if you only pay reduced contributions based on your maternity pay then inevitably your pension fund will be a little smaller.

If you take unpaid parental leave then while the time before and after must be counted as continual service, neither you nor your employer will pay into your pension and your parental leave need not be counted when your length of service is used to work out your pension. Of course many employers will be more generous than this.

There is more about this on the OPAS website.