Nothing happens to your annual leave when you go on maternity leave — it carries on building up exactly as if you were at work, for the full 52 weeks. You cannot take annual leave and maternity leave on the same day, so the leave you accrue while you are off simply sits there waiting for you.
That sounds tidy. In practice it creates the single most common maternity-leave admin problem in UK organisations: an employee returns in month eleven with a year’s worth of untaken holiday and a leave year that is about to close. This guide covers the rule, the carry-over mechanics, and the arithmetic that catches people out.
Key Takeaways
- You continue to build up holiday entitlement during maternity, paternity and adoption leave — GOV.UK confirms accrual is unaffected.
- You cannot take annual leave while on maternity leave. The two are separate statutory absences.
- Where statutory leave stops you using your holiday, regulation 13(14) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 lets you carry it into the next leave year.
- Up to 10 Keeping in Touch (KIT) days are available, they are entirely voluntary, and they do not end your maternity leave.
Does Annual Leave Accrue During Maternity Leave?
Yes — all of it, for the whole period. Statutory maternity leave is 52 weeks: 26 weeks Ordinary Maternity Leave and 26 weeks Additional Maternity Leave. Your terms and conditions continue throughout both, and holiday entitlement is one of those terms.
This applies to the full 5.6 weeks of statutory annual leave, not just the 4-week core, and to any contractual holiday your employer offers on top. It does not matter whether you are receiving Statutory Maternity Pay, enhanced company pay, or nothing at all in the final unpaid weeks — accrual is tied to the employment relationship, not to pay.
Bank holidays are part of the same picture. If your contract gives you the 8 UK bank holidays on top of your annual allowance, you are entitled to those days for any bank holiday that falls during your maternity leave. You take them as leave days later rather than losing them. Our guide to how UK bank holidays work for employers explains the two common contract wordings.
Can I Take Annual Leave While on Maternity Leave?
No. You cannot be on statutory maternity leave and annual leave simultaneously — a given day is one or the other. You can, however, take annual leave immediately before your maternity leave starts, or after it ends, and many people do exactly that.
Two practical patterns:
- Front-loading. Book holiday in the weeks before your maternity leave begins to bring your start date forward without shortening your 52 weeks. Watch out: if you are off sick with a pregnancy-related illness in the last four weeks before your due date, maternity leave starts automatically.
- Tailing. Attach accrued holiday to the end of your maternity leave so your paid absence extends past week 52. This is the more common choice, because holiday pay is usually higher than the closing weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay.
How Much Annual Leave Will I Have Built Up? A Worked Example
Sofia works full time, five days a week, with 28 days’ annual leave including bank holidays. Her leave year runs 1 January to 31 December. She starts maternity leave on 1 March 2026 and takes the full 52 weeks, returning on 1 March 2027.
| Leave year | Time employed but not on maternity leave | Holiday accrued | Holiday taken |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 Jan – 28 Feb (2 months) | 28 days (accrual continues all year) | 0 |
| 2027 | Returns 1 Mar | 28 days for 2027 | 0 so far |
Sofia accrues the full 28 days in 2026, because accrual does not pause. She takes none of it. On 1 January 2027 she has 28 untaken days from 2026 plus a fresh 28 days for 2027 — 56 days, roughly eleven working weeks, against ten months of remaining leave year.
That is the pile-up. It is not a loophole or an error; it is the arithmetic working correctly. It just needs planning rather than discovery.
Can I Carry Over Annual Leave From Maternity Leave?
Yes. Where a worker could not take their leave because they were on statutory leave, regulation 13(14) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 entitles them to carry the untaken leave into the following leave year. Acas states the position plainly: when someone cannot use their holiday because of statutory leave, they must be allowed to carry it over.
Two details matter:
- The carry-over covers your full statutory 5.6 weeks, not just the 4-week core. This is more generous than the sickness carry-over route, which caps at 4 weeks.
- The deadline is the end of the next leave year, not the 18-month window that applies to leave carried over because of long-term sickness. Do not confuse the two — see our guide to carrying over annual leave in the UK for the full set of routes.
Contractual holiday above the statutory 5.6 weeks is governed by your contract, not the Regulations. Many employers extend the same carry-over treatment voluntarily, but they are not obliged to. Check your policy before assuming.
What About Keeping in Touch (KIT) Days?
You can work up to 10 KIT days during maternity leave without ending your leave or losing Statutory Maternity Pay. Per GOV.UK, KIT days are optional on both sides: your employer cannot require you to work them and you cannot demand them. The work and the pay should be agreed before you come in.
The point people miss: KIT days are not annual leave and they do not consume it. A KIT day is a day worked, paid as agreed. It has no effect on your holiday balance in either direction. A half-day of training counts as one whole KIT day, so use them deliberately.
The Three-Date Maternity Leave Check
Before your maternity leave starts, pin down three dates. It takes ten minutes and prevents nearly every dispute we see.
- Your leave year end date. This determines how many leave years your maternity leave straddles, and therefore how many separate carry-over conversations you need.
- Your maternity leave start and end dates. Write down the accrual that will land in each leave year.
- Your intended return date. Then decide, in writing with your manager, whether accrued holiday is taken immediately before the return, tacked onto the end of maternity leave, or spread across the rest of the leave year.
Get the third one agreed in writing before you go. A manager who approves a plan in February rarely disputes it the following March; a manager who is presented with 56 days in one request often does.
What This Means for You
If you are the employee: assume you will accrue every day of your normal entitlement, ask for your carry-over to be confirmed in writing before you leave, and book the return-side holiday early — popular weeks go fast, and your right to carry over is not a right to take the days whenever you like.
If you are the employer: track maternity accrual in the same system as everything else. The failure mode is almost never a legal one. It is a spreadsheet that stopped accruing when the payroll changed, discovered eleven months later. See maternity and paternity leave in the UK for the surrounding entitlements.
Leave Balance keeps accruing entitlement for employees on maternity leave automatically, flags carried-over balances with their expiry, and shows managers the return-to-work holiday position months before it becomes a problem. Flat $10/month, unlimited employees, 14-day free trial.
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This article is general information, not legal advice. Statutory entitlements described are correct as at July 2026; check GOV.UK or take advice for your specific circumstances.