Declined while you are on maternity leave.

What has usually gone wrong

After the first few weeks, statutory maternity pay is a fraction of most salaries, and it falls further the longer the leave runs. An automated affordability check reading your most recent payslips sees a large drop in income and prices the mortgage against that figure — not against the salary you return to.

Nothing in that process asks whether you are going back to work. It is arithmetic applied to three pieces of paper, and it is why the decline so often feels like it has nothing to do with your actual circumstances. It usually does not.

What normally fixes it

A letter from your employer, and it needs to say three things: the date you return, the contracted hours you return to, and the salary you return on. That single document moves a great many lenders from the reduced figure to your normal one.

Where the return is part-time, the letter should say so and state the reduced salary. That is straightforward to work with — what causes problems is a letter that is vague, or an application assessed on a full-time salary you are not going back to.

Some lenders will use your return-to-work salary from the outset. Some want you to have returned first. Some sit in between and want the return date within a certain window. That variation is the whole reason a decline from one lender says so little, and it is the part worth getting right before applying again rather than after.

Childcare, which people forget to mention

Childcare costs are a committed monthly outgoing and will be part of the affordability assessment. It is better to work that figure out properly at the start than to have it emerge later and reduce what you can borrow at the worst moment. If you do not know yet, an honest estimate is more useful than leaving it blank.

What not to do

• Do not simply apply again with the same three payslips. Same evidence, same answer, another search on your file.
• Do not leave the leave unmentioned. It will be visible on the payslips and in the bank statements, and an application that does not match the evidence is a much bigger problem than a temporary drop in pay.
• Do not assume you have to wait until you are back. For a good number of lenders you do not, and waiting can cost you a rate or a purchase.

If you are not going back

Then the position is genuinely different, and it is worth saying so early. The case gets built around whatever the household income actually will be, which may mean a single-income application or a smaller loan. It is a harder conversation and it is a much better one to have now than at the offer stage.