Ever been on maternity or family leave? Check your pension contributions are correct

During your maternity, shared parental or adoption leave, your employer must continue paying into your workplace pension for up to:

• 39 weeks if your leave is paid (around 9 months)

• 26 weeks if your entire leave is unpaid (around 6 months).

After this, your employer does not need to pay in. But they might choose to if they offer a more generous family leave policy – you can ask them or check your contract.

Importantly, your employer’s contribution should be based on your normal pay, including any pay increases received while you were off. This includes if you use salary sacrifice to pay into your pension. 

Your own contribution is based on the pay you actually receive, so might be lower than normal. If your leave is unpaid, your own pension contributions usually stop.

The idea is to help make sure your pension continues to grow while you’re off work. 

To make sure you receive everything you’re entitled to, always check how much your employer pays into your pension during your leave.

You can:

• check your payslips

• check your pension statement – you can usually log in to your provider’s online account or contact them to request a copy 

• ask your manager or HR team for a breakdown of your pension contributions. 

There’s likely to be a problem if your employer’s contributions:

• are lower than they were before your leave started

• stop before 39 weeks (for paid leave) or 26 weeks (for unpaid leave). 

There are many reasons issues can happen, such as:

• your employer’s payroll system not being set up correctly to deal with family leave payments

• your employer not realising what the rules are, so they believe their contributions should be based on your actual pay.

If you spot a potential error, ask your employer to investigate and put things right – even if you returned from leave or left many years ago.

Most modern pensions build up a pot of money based on how much is paid in and how well the invested money performs.  

This means that missing contributions can have two negative effects on your pension pot, especially if they happen earlier in your career. 

For example, if your employer underpaid by £100 a month, you could lose out on: 

• £900 in contributions over 9 months, and 

• £3,000 to £10,000 in lost investment growth over 30 to 40 years, depending on how well the investments perform. 

The other main type of pension builds up guaranteed income based on your salary and how long you were a member. This means you could get a smaller annual pension if your employer bases its calculations on your reduced pay or stops your pensionable service too early.   

You can use our tool to find out your pension type or ask your provider. 

Your employer might pay a one-off payment into your pension, to make up for the contributions they missed or underpaid.

Your employer should also put processes in place to stop it happening to others, such as:

• checking pension contributions made to other employees during family leave were correct, and offering compensation if needed

• setting up payroll systems to pay the correct amount for the right period 

• training HR and payroll teams on the legal requirements.

If your employer is unhelpful or you’re unhappy with the outcome, ask to raise a formal complaint. 

It’s also worth raising the issue with your:

• pension provider 

• trade union, if you have one. 

They should be able to support your case.

You can also get free employment law help or advice in:

• England, Scotland and Wales from AcasOpens in a new window

• Northern Ireland from the Labour Relations AgencyOpens in a new window 

If you still cannot resolve the issue, you can take your complaint to The Pensions OmbudsmanOpens in a new window

You usually need to complain within 3 years of the problem first happening or when you first knew about it. Your complaint will then be reviewed to decide if your employer has already acted fairly, or if they need to do more to resolve things. 

If The Pensions Ombudsman upholds the complaint, your employer must do what they say. 

Always check for other ways to boost your pension, especially if your own contributions were lower or stopped during your leave. This might include: 

• paying more into a pension – your employer might also match your contributions  

• checking you’re getting all the tax relief you’re eligible for  

• making sure you’re on track for the maximum State Pension  

• delaying your retirement date.  

For more information, see our guide Ways to boost your pension.  

You can also use our Benefits calculator  to check if you’re entitled to any extra payments or grants.   

If you’re in a couple, it’s worth thinking about both of your pensions together. Especially if one of you has taken longer family leave, reduced your hours or has a lower paid job.

For example, you could consider using some of the higher earner’s income to pay into the other person’s pension.

Family leave typically affects women’s pension values the most – as women often take more time to care for family than men.

This widens the gender pensions gap which shows that, on average, women have around half as much saved in a pension as men by age 60.

Find out more in our guide Ways to close the gender pensions gap.