Everything you need to know about maternity benefits if you’re a self-employed dentist…

An update of a blog originally posted by Michelle Quince and Vicky Hancock:

Are you or your partner expecting a new addition to your family sometime soon? Or are you simply looking to plan ahead for a future happy event? Here’s some useful information regarding parental benefits for the self-employed:

Are you pregnant and self-employed?

Ordinarily, self-employed individuals are entitled to maternity allowance (also known as SMA) for up to 39 weeks, as long as certain criteria are fulfilled. Namely, you must have:

• Been registered with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby is due
• Paid Class 2 National Insurance contributions for at least 13 of the 66 weeks before the baby is due

Unfortunately, SMA is not a huge sum of money and the amount you receive will depend on the Class 2 national insurance contributions that you have made previously. Assuming you have made the required contributions, you will get the standard rate of SMA (currently £194.32 per week for 2026/27). If however, you’ve not paid enough, your SMA will be lower but there will be an opportunity to top-up your national insurance contributions and increase your maternity allowance after you apply. SMA is payable for a period of up to 39 weeks, and payments can start as early as 11 weeks before your baby is due.

An application for maternity allowance can be made after your 26th week of pregnancy and can be done by completing a rather lengthy form which is available from the gov.uk website. Payments are then made directly into your bank account every 2 or 4 weeks.

To end on a final bit of good news, SMA is a tax-free benefit so you get to keep 100% of the money (in contrast, if you were employed by your own limited company, statutory maternity pay is fully taxable).

But what if you happen to be pregnant and engaged in NHS dentistry?

If you are one of our clients who works in a practice that undertakes NHS work then you may be able eligible to claim an amount of contractual maternity pay from the NHSBSA (England & Wales), NHSNSS (Scotland) or BSO (Northern Ireland):

Each NHS region has its own specific rules but in board terms, NHS maternity pay is available to dental performers for a period of up to 26 weeks. You may be eligible if:

• You have been on the Dental List of NHS performer/ providers for at least 2 years, and the last 26 weeks must of that period must have been continuous and immediately proceeding the 15th week before your due date (i.e. you must have been on the list and working at the time you actually became pregnant);
• Your leave doesn’t start before 11 weeks before your due date;
• You don’t work during maternity leave (unless you arrange to undertake some optional “keeping in touch” days).
• And in some areas, you will need to confirm that you intend to return to work with the same or another NHS employer for a minimum period after your maternity leave has ended.

I should highlight that this information is specifically aimed at those that are registered as self-employed. For those trading within a limited company in England and Wales, contractual maternity pay is unlikely to be available as current eligibility guidance expressly excludes those performers that have registered as a Limited Company.

As a self-employed individual, the amount you can expect to receive during your maternity leave will depend on your location:

• Those in England and Wales can expect a weekly amount based on Net Pensionable Earnings (NPE) or Net Pensionable Earnings Equivalent (NPEE) as shown within the Compass system. This is currently capped at £1,660 per week for a dental performer.
• Those in Scotland can expect a fixed rate which is then adjusted for working hours and NHS commitment. The cap is currently £1,399 so, for example, an individual working 4-days per week with 80% being NHS work can expect a maternity leave payment of £895 per week.
• Those in Northern Ireland can expect a weekly amount based on their NHS earnings during a 12-month ‘test period’, which is broadly the year before the pregnancy began. This is currently capped at £1,465 per week.

Whichever area you work in, the amount of maternity pay you can expect to receive will be confirmed once your application has been approved and will be adjusted for any SMA that you are eligible to receive (see section above).

Similar to your current NHS earnings, these maternity payments will initially be made to the practice owner / contract provider and then paid over to you via your usual associate pay mechanism. Therefore, as with your current NHS earnings, these maternity payments will form part of your taxable income in the year of receipt.

So, in conclusion, if you are a self-employed pregnant dentist delivering NHS services, you could be eligible for 26-weeks of contractual maternity pay (taxable), along with 39-weeks of statutory maternity allowance (non-taxable).

Let’s not forget about your partner!

If your partner is also a Dentist working with NHS patients, don’t worry, the NHS haven’t forgotten about them either.

The benefit works in a similar way to the contractual maternity pay outlined above with the same eligibility criteria and expected pay amounts but for just a shorter period (2-weeks).

So, if they are a “Dental Performer” that will assume parental responsibility for the child after birth and they meet the eligibility criteria, they could be entitled to 2-weeks of paid leave which would need to be taken within the first year of the baby’s birth.

And what about if you are adopting?

The same principles apply. The main carer is entitled to 26 weeks of parental leave payments and their partner is entitled to 2 weeks (assuming both are “Dentist Performers”).
Applications for any of the NHS benefits outlined above can be made through your local NHS region with further details available on their websites (links provided above).

You can find out more about the maternity benefits available to NHS dentists here.

If we are your accountants and you have questions about your individual circumstances please do get in touch with us on 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.