Can You Get a Mortgage on Maternity Leave?

Yes, you can get a mortgage while you are on maternity leave. Lenders are not allowed to turn you down simply because you are pregnant or on leave, but they do have to be satisfied that you can afford the repayments both now, while your income is lower, and later, once you are back at work.

The catch is that lenders take very different views on how to treat your income during leave. Some will assess you on your full pre-maternity salary. Some will only look at the maternity pay landing in your account right now. That single difference can change what you can borrow by tens of thousands of pounds, which is why the lender you approach matters more than almost anything else.

This guide covers how maternity leave affects your application, what lenders will ask you for, how childcare costs come into it, and how to give yourself the best possible chance.

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How much does having a baby affect a mortgage?

Having a baby affects a mortgage application in two directions at once. Your income usually goes down, and your outgoings almost always go up.

On the income side, statutory maternity pay is paid for up to 39 weeks and is well below a typical full-time salary, so an affordability assessment based on your maternity pay alone will produce a much smaller borrowing figure. On the outgoings side, lenders will factor in the cost of raising a child, and if you are returning to work they will usually ask about childcare too.

None of this stops you getting a mortgage. It simply means the lender needs a clear picture of what your finances will look like in six or twelve months, not just what they look like today.

How do lenders assess your income on maternity leave?

Lenders generally take one of three approaches. Knowing which one you are dealing with tells you almost everything about how much you will be offered.

Approach	How it works	What it means for you
Full salary	The lender uses your normal pre-maternity salary, provided you can prove you are returning to the same job on the same terms.	The most favourable outcome. You borrow roughly what you would have borrowed anyway.
Maternity pay only	The lender assesses affordability on the income you are actually receiving right now.	Your borrowing figure drops sharply. Some lenders in this camp will decline the application outright.
Blended	The lender uses your maternity pay for the short term, then your full salary afterwards, and checks you can cope throughout.	A middle ground. Savings and a partner's income carry a lot of weight here.

As a rule, smaller building societies tend to be more flexible about maternity leave than large high street banks, because they are more likely to look at an application on its individual merits rather than run it through a fixed automated policy. There are also specialist lenders who deal with less straightforward circumstances every day.

Because criteria vary this much, approaching the wrong lender is genuinely costly. A declined application can leave a mark on your credit file, and multiple rejections make the next lender more cautious still.

What your lender will ask for

Applying on maternity leave follows the same process as any other application. You will simply be asked for more evidence. Have the following ready:

• A return-to-work letter from your employer

• Payslips showing your full pre-maternity salary, usually the three months before you went on leave

• Payslips showing your current maternity pay, if you are receiving any

• The start and end dates of your maternity leave

• Bank statements, normally covering the last three months

• Evidence of savings and any other income

• An idea of your childcare costs once you return to work

What the return-to-work letter must say

This is the document that decides which of the three approaches above a lender applies to you, so it is worth getting exactly right. Most lenders want it to confirm:

• The date you are returning to work

• The salary you will be on when you return

• The hours you will be working, and whether they have changed

• Your job title and that your role is unchanged

It should be on company headed paper, signed and dated. A vague email from a line manager will usually not be accepted. Some lenders will also ask you to sign your own declaration confirming that you intend to return.

Be aware that lenders are entitled to contact your employer directly to verify your role and salary before making a formal offer, so it is worth speaking to your HR team early. Your application then goes through the underwriting process in the normal way.

How much can you borrow on maternity leave?

Most lenders offer around four times your income, with some stretching to five times or more depending on your circumstances. The question that really matters is which income they use, and that takes you straight back to the three approaches above. Read more about what you can borrow on your salary.

A larger deposit helps in two ways here. It reduces the amount you need to borrow, and it lowers the lender's risk, which can open up better rates and more forgiving criteria. Clearing existing debt before you apply has a similar effect.

How childcare costs affect what you can borrow

This is the factor most people do not see coming. If you are returning to work, lenders will add your expected childcare costs to your monthly outgoings and subtract them from what you can afford.

Nursery fees, a childminder, or a nanny can run to several hundred pounds a month, and that comes straight off your borrowing power. Some lenders apply an average regional figure rather than asking you, which can work against you if your real costs are lower because, for example, you and your partner work opposite shifts, or family are helping out.

Get an actual quote from the nursery or childminder you plan to use and have the figure to hand. Being able to evidence a genuinely low childcare cost is worth real money on your application.

Can Child Benefit and Maternity Allowance count towards a mortgage?

Some lenders will count Child Benefit towards your affordability, particularly for babies and younger children. They tend to be more cautious about it for older children, because the payments will not run for the full mortgage term. Maintenance payments can sometimes be included too, but usually only where they are backed by a Court Order or Child Maintenance Service arrangement rather than an informal agreement.

If you do not qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay, you may be able to claim Maternity Allowance instead, and most lenders will take that into account. You can read more about how lenders treat this kind of income in our guide to getting a mortgage on benefits.

How to afford a mortgage on maternity leave

If your income has dropped, savings become the bridge. Lenders will often accept savings as evidence that you can cover the shortfall until you are back at work, but there are conditions.

• The money needs to be readily accessible. Funds tied up in another property, or in a notice account you cannot touch, generally will not count.

• It is usually only considered for the period of leave itself, not as ongoing income.

• You will need to show it on your bank statements, and be able to explain where a large recent deposit came from.

Beyond savings, the same fundamentals apply: keep your credit score healthy, avoid taking on new credit in the months before you apply, and think about whether income protection gives you a safety net if things change again.

Do you have to tell your mortgage lender if you're pregnant?

A lender is not allowed to ask you whether you are pregnant or planning to be, and cannot decline you on that basis. But you do have a duty to be honest about anything that materially affects your ability to repay, and a drop in income clearly does.

In practice, hiding it rarely works and is not worth the risk. Your maternity pay will show on your payslips and bank statements, and it will surface during underwriting anyway. Declaring it late can cause delays, or an offer being withdrawn at the worst possible moment.

There is also an upside to being upfront. If you tell the lender, they can take your return-to-work salary into account, and that often results in a larger offer than if they simply see reduced income on your payslips and draw their own conclusions.

Can you get a mortgage while pregnant?

Yes. Being pregnant does not stop you getting a mortgage and a lender cannot refuse you for it. What changes is that the lender will want to understand what your income and outgoings are going to look like once the baby arrives, because that is the period they are lending into.

Applying while you are still working and on full pay is often the simplest route of all, because there is no reduced income for a lender to assess. If you are already thinking about moving to a bigger home before the baby arrives, or you are a first-time buyer, it is worth getting the application moving sooner rather than later.

Should you apply now or wait until you return to work?

There is no single right answer, but the trade-off is fairly clear.

Applying now makes sense if you have found a property you want, or you want to secure a rate before it moves. Waiting can make sense if your return date is close, because once you have a single full payslip from back at work, most lenders will simply assess you on your normal salary and the whole conversation becomes much easier.

If your return date is a few weeks away, waiting is often the better call. If it is six months away, waiting means putting your plans on hold, and you are better off finding a lender who will work with you now.

Your situation, and what it means for your application

Three details do most of the work in deciding which lenders will suit you.

Are you returning full-time or part-time?

If you are going back to the same job on the same hours, you are in the strongest position, and lenders using the full-salary approach should be open to you. If you are returning part-time or on reduced hours, lenders will assess you on your new, lower salary rather than your old one. That is not a barrier, but it does change the numbers, so it is worth knowing your post-return salary before you apply rather than after.

How long is left on your leave?

The closer you are to going back, the easier the application. Within a couple of months of your return date, many lenders become noticeably more relaxed. Early in your leave, with nine or ten months still to run, you will need a stronger return-to-work letter and more evidence of savings, and the pool of willing lenders is smaller.

Are you applying on your own or with a partner?

With a joint mortgage, lenders look at your combined income. If your partner is staying in work, their salary does a lot of the heavy lifting and your reduced income matters far less. In some cases you can qualify on their income alone, which gives you real freedom afterwards, including the option of going part-time. Applying as a sole applicant on maternity pay is the hardest version of this, and it is where finding the right lender matters most.

Self-employed and on maternity leave

If you are self-employed, the question a lender will ask is what happens to your business while you are off. If the business keeps trading and the income keeps coming in, your leave may make very little difference. If your income depends entirely on you being there, expect more scrutiny.

Be ready with two or three years of accounts, SA302 forms, or tax year overviews from HMRC, and a realistic view of what your earnings will look like during and after your leave.

Adoption leave, paternity leave, and shared parental leave

Adoption leave has been broadly aligned with maternity leave in the UK since 2003, and lenders should treat it the same way, with the same affordability rules and the same evidence requirements.

Paternity leave is usually much shorter and often on full or near-full pay, so most lenders do not treat it as a significant factor. Shared parental leave sits somewhere in between, and because the arrangement can be split in so many ways, a lender will want to see clearly who is off, for how long, and on what pay.

Can you get a mortgage on maternity leave with bad credit?

It is harder, but it is not impossible. The difficulty is that the lenders most willing to use your full pre-maternity salary tend to be the same lenders least willing to accept adverse credit. You are narrowing the pool from both ends at once.

Not all credit problems are treated alike. Lenders look at how serious the issue was, how long ago it happened, and what you have done since. A larger deposit will work in your favour, and there are lenders who specialise in exactly this situation.

If you want to see where you stand before you apply, use our free credit check tool (£14.99 per month after the free 30-day trial). It will show you any mistakes or fraudulent activity on your file so you can deal with them first. The trial and subscription can be cancelled at any time.

How does maternity leave affect remortgaging?

If you are moving to a new lender, remortgaging on maternity leave works much like a new application. The new lender runs a full affordability assessment, and your reduced income will be part of it. Most will want proof that you are returning to work on the same hours and terms.

If the affordability does not work for a full remortgage, there is a useful fallback that many people miss. A product transfer means staying with your current lender and simply switching to one of their new rates. Because you are not borrowing more, a product transfer usually involves no new affordability assessment, no valuation, and no legal work. It is often the quickest way to get off a standard variable rate while you are on leave.

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Can I pause my mortgage while on maternity leave?

Some lenders will let you take a payment holiday, or reduce your payments temporarily, if your income has dropped during maternity leave. This is entirely at the lender's discretion and is not a right.

Two things are worth understanding before you ask. First, pausing payments does not make the debt go away. The interest continues to build and your payments will be higher afterwards, or your term will be extended. Second, if you are already behind on payments, you will usually not qualify.

Speak to your lender early rather than missing a payment. Lenders have far more room to help someone who comes to them in advance than someone who has already fallen into arrears.

How to get a mortgage on maternity leave

1. Work out your numbers. Know your pre-maternity salary, your current maternity pay, your return date, and your expected childcare costs.

2. Get your return-to-work letter from your employer, on headed paper, signed and dated, confirming your return date, salary, and hours.

3. Gather your evidence. Payslips from before and during leave, three months of bank statements, and proof of savings.

4. Check your credit file and clear what you can, so you approach the lender in the strongest position.

5. Get an Agreement in Principle. It gives you a realistic idea of what you can borrow and shows sellers you are serious.

6. Approach the right lender, not just any lender. This is the step that decides the outcome.

How a broker helps you find the right lender

Everything on this page comes back to one thing: two lenders looking at exactly the same application can reach completely different answers. One uses your full salary. One uses your maternity pay. One declines you outright.

You cannot see that from the outside, and finding out by applying is expensive, because a decline leaves a footprint. A mortgage broker already knows which lenders are currently comfortable with maternity leave, which ones will use your return-to-work salary, and which ones will not waste your time. That is the whole value of the exercise: getting it right first time.

A broker will also help you get your return-to-work letter worded correctly, pull your evidence together, and present your case in the way that particular lender wants to see it.

At The Mortgage Genie, we have extensive experience in helping people secure the right mortgage. If you're looking for expert advice, give us a call at 01915809890, and we'll assist you on your journey to homeownership. And why not see how much you could borrow up to today by using our mortgage calculator?

The above blog has information contained within which was correct at the time of publication but is subject to change.