Maternity Leave Question

[BlueFox26]

Hi

I am a teacher currently nearing the end of my mat leave from baby 1, (born mid Feb 2024) but am having a short period of unpaid leave before returning to work at the beginning of July this year.
My partner and I want to start trying for baby 2 ASAP but without ending up needing to repay money from mat leave 1 or not meeting the criteria to qualify for mat leave 2.
I understand I need to return to work for a minimum of 13 weeks to not owe money back for mat leave 1, (no problems here), but one of the criteria for mat leave 2 is that a ‘qualifying period’ based on a due date is used, where I need to be earning a minimum of £123 per week for 8 consecutive weeks. I’ve been told if baby 2 is due on or between 8th-28th Feb 2026 then Sept & Oct 2025 are used as the qualifying period. But if the due date is 1st-7th Feb 2026 the sept & Aug 2025 are used. What due date window would mean July & Aug 2025 are used as the qualifying period? Is it even possible to work this out myself or do I need to speak to payroll as what I’ve read online seems to suggest that I need to know when the cut off is for payroll that month. So confused 🫤

Thank you so much!! 🙏🏼

It's the 15th week before you're due to
Give birth

This is what I’ve read when I’ve Googled it. But this doesn’t match the dates/months that payroll have quoted that I mentioned. They seem to be using entire months for the qualifying period rather than just whatever 8 weeks happen to be prior to 15 weeks before the due date.

Think its the last 2 months payslips prior to the 25th week of pregnancy they use if paid monthly. There might be a calculator for it somewhere