BrightPay is designed to be flexible and allows you to manage pension contributions for employees on maternity leave according to your pension scheme rules.

By default, BrightPay will calculate pension contributions based on the pay elements that are included in pensionable pay on the Payslip.

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is included in pensionable pay if your pension scheme rules specify this.

However, many pension schemes require that employer contributions continue to be based on the employee’s “normal” or “notional” salary (i.e., their pay before maternity leave), while employee contributions may be based on actual pay received (which could be SMP or zero if the employee is on unpaid leave).

How to manage this in BrightPay:

• If your scheme requires contributions to be based on the employee’s normal gross pay (not just SMP), you will need to manually override the pension amount while the employee is on maternity leave.
• To do this, when processing payroll for the employee on maternity leave, click into the pension contribution field and change the % to £ and enter the pension contribution manually as an amount. 

If you need further guidance on your specific pension scheme requirements, it’s always best to check with your pension provider or refer to your scheme documentation.