Neonatal Care Pay Calculator
Check the separate leave and pay tests, then estimate your statutory weekly and total pay under the rules introduced for babies born from 6 April 2025.
Leave is a day-one right. Pay has separate service and earnings tests.
Each complete 7-day period gives 1 week, up to 12 weeks.
The 2026-27 pay threshold is £129.00 a week.
Statutory pay requires at least 26 weeks.
Eligibility result
Eligible for leave and statutory pay
3 weeks of Neonatal Care Leave generated by the care period.
Eligible Leave
3 weeksDay-one employment right
Weekly Statutory Pay
£194.32Lower of £194.32 or 90% of earnings
Total Statutory Pay
£582.96Before PAYE tax and National Insurance
- Qualifying care conditions
- Met
- 26-week service test for pay
- Met
- Weekly earnings test for pay
- Met
- Rate basis
- Statutory weekly cap
This estimates statutory entitlement only. Your employer may offer enhanced pay, and formal eligibility also depends on your parental relationship and responsibility for the baby.
How Neonatal Care Leave Builds Up
The baby must be born on or after 6 April 2025, enter qualifying neonatal care within 28 days of birth, and remain there for at least 7 consecutive full days. Every completed 7-day period creates one week of leave, capped at 12 weeks.
The leave can sit alongside maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental or parental bereavement leave. It must be taken within 68 weeks of birth; how it can be split depends on whether the baby is still receiving neonatal care when the leave starts.
Leave and Pay Have Different Tests
- Leave: a day-one employment right once the care and parental conditions are met.
- Pay: normally needs 26 weeks of continuous service by the relevant week and average weekly earnings of at least £129.00 in 2026/27.
- Weekly amount: the lower of £194.32 or 90% of average weekly earnings.
Neonatal Care Pay is paid through payroll, so Income Tax and National Insurance are deducted. An employer can offer a more generous contractual scheme.
What Counts as Neonatal Care?
GOV.UK includes medical or palliative care received in hospital, certain consultant-led care after leaving hospital, and palliative or end-of-life care. The calculator asks for consecutive full days because partial days do not complete the statutory 7-day blocks.
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