Is it worth going back to work after maternity leave?

In 2023, Pregnant Then Screwed surveyed parents about childcare and money. 76% of the mothers who pay for childcare said it no longer makes financial sense for them to go to work (Pregnant Then Screwed, 2023).

Plenty of mothers return looking forward to contributing and to a routine of their own. Then the first month ends, the bills arrive together, and the question changes from "can I afford not to go back?" to "can I afford to work?"

This post sets out what help with childcare costs exists in England, how to run your own sums, and what the sums leave out. Going back and staying home are both legitimate decisions. The system should make either one easier to choose.

Why does the maths stop working in the first month back?

The costs arrive together. Nursery fees, travel, extra food, longer hours of care to cover the working day and backup care when your child is sick all land in the first month, and some mothers cut their hours to manage. Pay for the hours you now work is the only money coming in against them.

Coram Family and Childcare found that families who do not qualify for funded hours now spend a quarter of their household income on part-time childcare for a child under 2 (Coram Family and Childcare, 2026). The Pregnant Then Screwed figure records how mothers judged their own sums, and every household's figures differ.

What help with childcare costs can you get in England?

England has 3 main schemes. Funded hours give eligible working parents 30 hours a week for 38 weeks a year. Tax-Free Childcare adds £2 for every £8 you pay in, up to £2,000 a year for each child. Universal Credit can repay up to 85% of eligible costs.

Funded hours start from the term after your child turns 9 months old. Each parent usually needs to expect to earn at least £2,643.68 over the next 3 months if aged 21 or over, and adjusted net income for you or your partner cannot be over £100,000 (GOV.UK, 2026). Coram reports that the 30 hours run for 38 weeks a year (Coram Family and Childcare, 2026), so ask your provider what you will pay across the whole year.

Tax-Free Childcare is worth up to £2,000 a year per child, or £4,000 if your child is disabled. The same earnings floor and £100,000 limit apply, and you cannot get it while claiming Universal Credit (GOV.UK, 2026). If you get funded hours in England, you can pay your provider for the rest using Tax-Free Childcare, Universal Credit or childcare vouchers (GOV.UK, 2026).

Universal Credit caps its payment at £1,071.09 per assessment period for 1 child and £1,836.16 for 2 or more. You pay the provider first, report the costs afterwards, and the provider must be registered with Ofsted (GOV.UK, 2026).

How do you work out your own sums?

List everything that changes when you return, subtract the help you could get, and compare the result with your take-home pay for the hours you work. Use the GOV.UK childcare calculator for the help available, and an independent benefits calculator to see how work changes your benefits.

Here is an illustration. Coram's average price in England for 25 hours a week in a nursery for a child under 2, for a family without funded hours, is £188.75 a week (Coram Family and Childcare, 2026). Over 52 weeks that comes to £9,815, or about £818 a month. A Tax-Free Childcare top-up would cover 20% of that bill, about £1,963 a year, which sits within the £2,000 cap. Universal Credit could repay up to 85%, around £695 of the £818, although Universal Credit itself changes as your pay changes. Only the weekly price is a published figure. The rest is multiplication.

Your nursery, area and household will differ, so run the GOV.UK childcare calculator and a benefits calculator listed by GOV.UK with your own figures. This is general information and does not replace financial advice.

What do the sums leave out?

Money is 1 column of the sums. The others are flexibility for emergencies, hours that fit nursery opening times, cover when your child is sick, somewhere to express milk if you are breastfeeding, and the emotional cost of the first weeks. Some of these have legal footholds worth knowing before you decide.

Every employee can ask for flexible working from their first day in a job, and the employer must decide within 2 months unless you agree a longer time (GOV.UK, 2026). From 2027 under the Employment Rights Act 2025, an employer can reject a request only where it is reasonable to do so (GOV.UK, 2026). Our guide to the Employment Rights Act 2025 for pregnant staff and returners covers the wider changes.

You can work up to 10 keeping in touch days during maternity leave if you and your employer agree, which lets you test a routine before you commit. If your leave was 26 weeks or less, you return to your old job. After longer leave you have the right to return to your job or a similar one on the same or better terms (GOV.UK, 2026).

The Health and Safety Executive says toilets are not suitable for expressing milk, and that there is no legal requirement for an employer to provide a private space to do it (HSE, 2026). That gap sits in the system. If the decision is affecting your sleep or mood, speak to your GP, midwife or health visitor, and call 999 or go to A&E in an emergency.

Why does one decision become many small ones?

Few mothers resign on day one. They reduce hours, move to part-time, take a lower-paid flexible job, and watch progression slow while income drops. After enough of these steps a career break starts to look like the only option. What looks like a single decision is the end of many smaller ones, and the system could have helped at each.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that switching to part-time work leads to negligible progression in hourly wages, while a graduate with 7 years of full-time experience gains a further 6% from one more full-time year (IFS, 2018). That research was published in 2018, so it describes earlier cohorts. Our post on why mothers leave work after maternity leave follows the pattern in more detail.

What would better support look like from the system's side?

Better support means childcare that fits working lives, with prices families can predict, places that match working hours, subsidies tied to the hours a mother needs, and flexible roles offered from the start. Evidence from other countries shows that subsidies help and that design decides who benefits.

In Denmark, the parents' contribution comprises a maximum of 25 per cent of the expenses (Eurydice, 2026). Mothers there still lose earnings. A study of Danish register data estimated about $120,000 in cumulative lost labour income two decades after a first birth, with state transfers such as child benefits and parental leave pay offsetting about $98,000 of it (Christensen and Killewald, 2025).

After Quebec introduced $5 a day childcare, employment among married mothers rose by 7.7 percentage points relative to the rest of Canada, and the same research reported worse behavioural and health outcomes for children (Baker, Gruber and Milligan, 2008). A separate study found a large effect on mothers' labour supply too (Lefebvre and Merrigan, 2008). In a randomised trial in Nairobi, women offered childcare vouchers were 8.5 percentage points more likely to be employed (Clark and others, 2019).

None of this is automatic. Hours, fit, availability and who qualifies decide whether a subsidy keeps a mother in work. Employers can help too, and our post on how employers can help with childcare costs explains how.

About Matresa

Matresa is a UK digital maternal health platform, currently pre-launch. It offers one personalised digital maternal health pathway from pregnancy to the child's second birthday. It was founded by Mari-Carmen Sanchez-Morris, a mother of 3 with a nursing background in paediatric intensive care.

Join the Matresa founding community