Can You Apply for a Mortgage While on Maternity Leave?
- Jul 16
- 8 min read
Find out whether you can borrow on your normal salary while on leave, and the one letter that decides it.
Quick Answer
Yes. You can apply for a mortgage while on maternity leave, and a lender cannot decline you simply for being on it. Many lenders will assess you on the salary you return to rather than your reduced leave pay, provided you can evidence the return.
One document does most of the work. An employer letter confirming that you are going back, when, and on what salary is what moves a lender from your leave pay to your real income.
The catch in 2026 is the spread between lenders. Some use your full return salary, some use a proportion, and some use only what you are receiving today. Same paperwork, very different offers.
Reviewed by Ben Stephenson, FCA authorised (FRN 496907) · 25+ years' experience · 4.9★ on Google. Updated: 16 July 2026.
Who Is This Guide For
Best for parents buying or remortgaging during maternity or shared parental leave, couples whose affordability dropped when leave began, and anyone told to wait until they are back at work before applying.
Key Points
Lenders cannot decline you for being on leave.
An employer letter unlocks your return salary.
Policy varies: full, partial or none.
Table of Contents
The law is on your side, but your payslip is not
Start with the reassuring part. Pregnancy and maternity are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, and that protection extends to the provision of services. A lender cannot refuse you a mortgage because you are on maternity leave.
Now the practical part. Nothing stops a lender assessing your income, and if your income today is statutory maternity pay, that is what an ordinary affordability check will find.
So the obstacle is not prejudice. It is evidence. Your salary has not gone anywhere, it is simply paused, and a lender needs a reason to look past the number on this month's payslip.
That reason is documentation, and it is far more available than most parents realise. Being told to wait until you are back at work is common advice, and it is usually wrong.
The wait-until-you-are-back line persists because it is the easiest answer for whoever is giving it. It is also how people lose houses. Where your return is documented, there is usually no reason at all to pause.
How lenders assess income while you are on leave
Under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Consumer Duty, in force since 2023, a lender must be satisfied the mortgage is affordable. The question is which income they measure that against.
Most will accept that leave is temporary, and will work from the salary you return to. A minority take a stricter line and use only what is currently arriving, which produces a dramatically lower figure.
Where you are | What a lender may use |
Full pay, early in leave | Often your normal salary |
Statutory maternity pay | Some use it, many discount it |
Returning full-time, letter supplied | Frequently your full return salary |
Returning part-time | The reduced salary you return to |
Not returning at all | Your new income, once it exists |
This is the widest spread in the batch, and it is entirely about policy rather than your circumstances. UK Finance members set their own rules, and Bank of England lending standards require realism, not uniformity. It is the same pattern that makes childcare costs so lender-dependent, and the two often land on the same application.
Shared parental leave works the same way. The income question is identical and the same employer letter does the same job, whichever parent is taking the time off.
What paperwork actually settles it
One letter carries this. Everything else is supporting cast.
Your employer needs to confirm, in writing, that you are returning to work, the date you return, the salary you return on, and whether your hours are changing. That is it. Most HR departments produce these routinely and will not blink at the request.
Alongside it, expect to supply your payslips from before leave started, usually the last three, so the lender can see the salary the letter refers to is real.
Ask for the letter before you apply, not after an underwriter requests it. A file that arrives complete gets a different reception to one that arrives with questions attached, which is true of everything a lender reads on your bank statements as well.
One detail people miss: the letter should state the salary, not just confirm the return. A letter saying you are coming back in March, without the figure, leaves the underwriter exactly where they started.
Letters do age. If yours is several months old by the time you apply, expect to be asked for a fresh one, so time the request to the application rather than getting it early and sitting on it.
What if you are not going back, or going back part-time?
Honesty is not just the ethical answer here, it is the practical one. Lenders build the mortgage around the income you will actually have, and getting that wrong hurts you more than them.
Returning part-time. Your reduced salary is what counts. Say so upfront and the assessment is built correctly. Say nothing and the offer is based on a full-time income you will not receive.
Not returning at all. A lender will want to know what replaces the salary. If a new job is lined up, an offer letter usually carries it. If nothing is lined up, that income cannot be counted.
Undecided. This is the difficult one, because lenders want certainty and you may not have it. It is worth talking through before you apply rather than guessing on a form.
Do not be tempted to declare a full-time return you do not intend to make. It is a misrepresentation, and the mortgage you get will be sized for money that never arrives. Where affordability is genuinely tight on the reduced figure, the fix is usually elsewhere, as our notes on improving affordability as a first-time buyer set out.
Remember the other side of the ledger too. Returning part-time often means lower childcare costs, and some of what you lose in salary you recover in reduced outgoings. Family income such as child benefit and maintenance may also be counted by some lenders, which can soften the gap.
Case study: applying four months into leave
Here is an illustrative example. A teacher we will call Sophie earns 37,000 pounds and was four months into maternity leave, receiving statutory pay, when she and her partner found the house they wanted.
Her own bank assessed her on what was arriving that month. The borrowing figure collapsed, and she was advised to reapply once she was back at work in the autumn, by which point the house would be long gone.
Her employer produced a letter in two days confirming a January return, full-time, on her existing salary. A lender that assesses on the return-to-work figure treated her as a 37,000 pound earner and the application proceeded normally. The figures are illustrative only and not a quote, but the sequence is the point: nothing about Sophie changed between the two answers except who was reading the file.
Step by step: applying while on maternity leave
Six steps, in this order. The sequence matters more than people expect, because the paperwork shapes which lenders are worth approaching.
Get the employer letter first. Ask HR to confirm your return, the date, the salary and any change to your hours. Everything downstream depends on it.
Decide your real return position. Full-time, part-time or not at all. Be honest with yourself before you are asked to be honest on a form.
Gather your pre-leave payslips. Usually the three months before leave began, so the salary in the letter is corroborated.
Work out your childcare cost. It will be counted as an outgoing, and it often lands at the same time as your return.
Choose lenders on policy, not rate. A market-leading rate is worthless from a lender that assesses you on statutory pay.
Apply with the full pack ready. Letter, payslips and childcare figure supplied upfront, so nothing stalls mid-underwrite.
Step five is where most of the value sits. A wider panel of lenders means the policy you need already exists, and the job is finding it rather than persuading your own bank to change its mind.
If you are already several months into leave, none of this changes. The return date is what matters to an underwriter, not how long you have been off, so a late application is no weaker than an early one.
The Money and Pensions Service publishes free guidance on budgeting through leave, which is worth reading if the gap between statutory pay and your salary is making the next few months tight regardless of the mortgage.
FAQs
Can I get a mortgage while on maternity leave?
Yes. Pregnancy and maternity are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, so a lender cannot decline you for being on leave. What varies is which income they assess you on, and that is usually settled by an employer letter confirming your return.
What does the employer letter need to say?
That you are returning to work, the date you return, the salary you return on, and whether your hours are changing. A letter confirming the return without stating the salary leaves the underwriter unable to use the figure.
Will a lender only use my statutory maternity pay?
Some will, and that produces a much lower figure. Many others will use the salary you return to once it is evidenced. This is one of the widest policy splits in lending, so the lender you approach matters enormously.
What if I am going back part-time?
Declare the reduced salary. Lenders will assess you on the income you will actually have, and building the mortgage around a full-time figure you will not earn creates a payment you may struggle with. Reduced childcare costs often offset part of the drop.
Should I just wait until I am back at work?
Rarely necessary. Waiting can cost you the property, and with the right lender and an employer letter you can usually be assessed on your return salary now. It is worth checking before you put a purchase on hold.
Summary
You can apply for a mortgage on maternity leave, and no lender may decline you for being on it. The practical question is which income they use, and that is decided by an employer letter confirming your return date and salary. In 2026 some lenders assess your full return-to-work salary, some a proportion, and some only your statutory pay, so choosing a lender on policy rather than headline rate is what protects your borrowing.
Updated: 16 July 2026
Written by Ben Stephenson, CeMAP-qualified Mortgage Broker.
Manor Mortgages Direct is FCA authorised, FRN 496907, with 25 years trading, is highly positively reviewed, 4.9 rated on Google, and has helped thousands secure the right mortgage. Bristol-based mortgage brokers, assisting clients nationwide.
Sources
Equality Act 2010 - protected characteristics and provision of services. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15
Financial Conduct Authority - Consumer Duty (2023). fca.org.uk
FCA Handbook - MCOB 11.6 Responsible lending. handbook.fca.org.uk
UK Finance - Mortgage Lenders' Handbook. ukfinance.org.uk
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