Does income protection cover maternity leave? Not the leave itself, on the six insurers' wordings below: they pay when illness or injury stops you working, not for time off you are entitled to. What they do address is narrower: whether the ordinary course of a pregnancy counts, whether complications do, and whether you can claim if you fall ill while on leave. Legal & General's policy terms (QGI12745, April 2025; adviser site) split it this way: no payment "if incapacity is due to the normal effects of pregnancy", but no exclusion for "complications from pregnancy or childbirth that mean you’re unable to work".

A broker authorised by the FCA can ask insurers how a plan treats leave and pregnancy for your own job. Fill in the form with your details and one will ring you, without charge.

Where pregnancy itself sits in the wording

Two of these insurers name pregnancy, both to leave the normal kind out. LV='s policy summary (April 2026) lists "a normal pregnancy" among reasons for being unable to work that it does not cover; Legal & General's terms exclude "the normal effects of pregnancy".

The same clause then carves out complications of pregnancy or childbirth that leave you unable to work, as confirmed by your doctor or medical consultant: those are not excluded. Because those terms still require you to be incapacitated and pay only after the deferred period ends, the carve-out lifts an exclusion; it is not a payment in itself.

For Zurich (terms PWL850002003, April 2026), Aviva (Living Costs Protection conditions AL19002, October 2024), Royal London (Personal Menu Plan details, July 2026) and Scottish Widows (summary, September 2025), how an illness linked to pregnancy is treated, and what is asked about pregnancy at application, depends on the policy, so put both questions to the insurer in writing. Life insurance while pregnant covers the same question for life cover.

If you fall ill while on maternity leave

Five of the insurers have wording for this, each different:

Insurer and documentWhat it says about claims during leave
Legal & General (QGI12745, April 2025)If you become incapacitated during statutory maternity, paternity or adoption leave, it pays your chosen monthly benefit, based on the income you had before the leave, if you were employed or self-employed just before it. The claim is treated as an own-occupation claim.
Zurich (PWL850002003, April 2026)The claim is based on the occupation and gross income from before the leave began. For maternity and paternity leave the inability to work must start within 12 months of the child's birth; for adoption, within 12 months of the adoption date.
Aviva (AL19002, October 2024)The main benefit is payable if immediately before incapacity you were on maternity leave that began up to 52 weeks earlier, or on parental leave as the other parent with the child born up to 52 weeks earlier. In the first 52 weeks of leave, incapacity means being unable to do the last occupation you followed.
Royal London (Personal Menu Plan, July 2026)For someone on maternity, parental or adoption leave when incapacity starts, with the child born up to 52 weeks earlier, the maximum benefit is worked out from earnings in the 12 months before the leave started.
Scottish Widows (September 2025)Not a leave clause as such: the lookback used to decide whether you were working stretches from 90 days to 12 months for an employee on agreed maternity, parental or adoption leave whose job is being held open, or who has accepted a new role to start when leave ends.

VitalityLife's adviser sales aid (VLB0022, September 2026), a marketing document rather than policy terms, says "If you claim while on parental leave, you’ll still be classed as working, so it won’t affect your payout."

Whether your plan's leave clause needs notice, a time limit or evidence of your job is worth settling before leave starts, and the broker can check it against your plan on a free call-back. How income protection works and how plans compare give the wider picture.

When the policy treats you as not working

Where an insurer decides you were not in work before a claim, a different test and a lower ceiling can apply. What matters on leave is which months the insurer looks back over.

  • Legal & General moves to an activities-of-daily-living test for a houseperson, someone not working or someone averaging under 16 hours a week over the 3 months before incapacity; for someone on statutory leave, those 3 months are counted back from the start of the leave. Claiming as a houseperson, not working or on under 16 hours, the most it pays is £1,666.67 a month.
  • Zurich's House Person Benefit applies only where you have done no paid work for three months and do not meet its sabbatical or maternity requirements. Its ceiling is £1,500 a month, or your monthly benefit if lower, less any continuing income, and the test is daily living: at least three of six listed activities you can no longer perform.
  • LV='s summary does not mention leave. It keeps its own-occupation measure for a claim within 30 days of becoming unemployed, a homemaker or taking a career break, and after 31 days or more out of work uses homemaker cover: whether accident or sickness leaves you unable to prepare a meal or do basic housework.

Whether a gap between statutory leave ending and going back counts as work is for your plan's conditions, so ask. If your job ends while you are on leave, income protection and redundancy covers how insurers treat that.

What happens to your cover and premiums while you are on leave

Whether a plan lets you pause premiums for maternity leave itself depends on the policy, and a broker can answer that free when they ring; what these insurers' terms say about premiums concerns claims and other breaks.

Premiums stop only once a claim is being paid. Legal & General's terms say that "Whilst you’re receiving your benefit, you won’t need to pay us monthly premiums for your policy", and that premiums stay payable through the deferred period until it has finished processing the claim. Zurich waives them "while we’re paying you a benefit"; Scottish Widows keeps collecting during the deferred period and while it considers a claim; and if Aviva accepts a claim for one of its core benefits, it pays the premiums from the end of the deferred period or 13 weeks into the incapacity, whichever is sooner. Collection resumes when the claim ends. What waiver of premium is covers the stand-alone version.

Some plans have break features, none of them a maternity provision. Zurich's Sabbatical Cover, for an employee taking up to 12 months out, requires that "You must continue to pay your premiums", cannot start in the first year of the policy or of a new job, and excludes the self-employed. Its separate Career Break, available once after the policy's first 12 months, lowers the monthly benefit to as little as £250 a month (subject to a minimum premium) for up to 12 months, after which benefit and premiums go back up. Royal London's sabbatical or career-break clause also depends on "you continue to pay your premiums".

LV='s summary says it may be able to reduce the premium if you tell it you have stopped working, though a claim may then be assessed on homemaker measures. Legal & General warns more generally that "if your income reduces this may impact how much you receive if you need to claim". If your income is lower on leave, ask how that affects the benefit, and whether your plan's premiums are guaranteed or reviewable, which age-costed income protection explains. How much cover you need alongside sick pay is in how much income protection you need.

What the state pays during leave, and how it fits

Maternity pay comes from your employer and the state, separately from any policy. GOV.UK's guide gives Statutory Maternity Leave as 52 weeks and Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) as up to 39 weeks: 90% of average weekly earnings (before tax) for the first 6 weeks, then £194.32 or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for the next 33 weeks. Those are the 2026 to 2027 rates, as in HMRC's rates and thresholds for employers. Among the conditions, you must earn on average at least £129 a week and have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks into the qualifying week; if you are not eligible, you may be eligible for Maternity Allowance instead.

That allowance is for people who are employed but cannot get SMP, are self-employed or have recently stopped working, for up to 39 weeks. Employed or recently stopped: £194.32 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is less. Self-employed: between £27 and £194.32 a week, depending on Class 2 National Insurance contributions. (£194.32 is DWP's 2026 to 2027 standard rate.) Take the full 52 weeks of leave and "your final 13 weeks will be unpaid". Self-employed readers can start with income protection for the self-employed.

Two GOV.UK rules bear on pregnancy illness. Maternity leave and SMP start automatically if you are off work for a pregnancy-related illness in the 4 weeks before the week your baby is due, and you cannot get Statutory Sick Pay while getting SMP. Neither decides how an insurer treats that illness.

Frequently asked questions

Does income protection cover unpaid maternity leave?

The leave clauses quoted turn on your being on leave, and for Aviva, Royal London and Zurich on a time window from the birth or the start of leave, not on whether the leave is paid. Each window is in the table above.

Does income protection pay out during paternity leave?

Some leave clauses go beyond maternity: Legal & General and Zurich name paternity leave, and Aviva and Royal London name parental leave, on the conditions in the table above.

Do I have to tell my insurer I am going on maternity leave?

Zurich's terms say you need not tell it about maternity, paternity or adoption leave unless you claim. LV='s summary does not mention leave but asks to be told if you stop working, so ask it whether leave counts. For other plans, check the conditions or ask the insurer in writing.

Already holding a plan, or weighing one up? The form here asks a broker to ring and go through its leave, premium and pregnancy wording with you, free of charge. More guides sit under critical illness and income.

Sources