Maternity leave starts in six weeks. The maths is not adding up.

Maternity leave is weeks away and you can already see the income falling off a cliff. Tell it your take-home, your partner's, your outgoings and the weeks until leave, and it maps how Statutory Maternity Pay steps down after the first six weeks and builds two zero-based budgets so you know exactly what the household has to work with through the leave.

I am going on maternity leave in {WEEKS_UNTIL_LEAVE} weeks. My current monthly take-home is {CURRENT_TAKE_HOME}. During leave I will receive Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) for the first 39 weeks, which starts at 90% of average weekly earnings for 6 weeks then drops to the standard SMP rate. My partner's monthly take-home is {PARTNER_TAKE_HOME}. Our current monthly outgoings are {CURRENT_OUTGOINGS}. Build two zero-based budgets: one for the current period (pre-leave saving phase) and one for the leave period using the lower income. Both must allocate every pound and include a 5% buffer. For the pre-leave budget, calculate how much we need to save each month to cover the income gap during leave, and show this as a named sinking fund line. Flag any categories that will increase after the baby arrives (utilities, food, baby costs). Pressure-test all totals.