These Regulations amend the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations 1986 (S.I. 1986/1960), the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) (Earnings) Regulations 2000 (S.I. 2000/688), the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (General) Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/2822), the Statutory Shared Parental Pay (General) Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/3051) and the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (General) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/233).

The amendments in regulation 3 and regulations 5 to 7 apply for calculating a person’s normal weekly earnings for the purposes of determining entitlement to, and rate of payment of, respectively, statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay, statutory adoption pay, statutory shared parental pay and statutory parental bereavement pay. The amendments in regulation 4 apply for calculating the average weekly amount of specified payments made to a woman for the purpose of determining entitlement to, and rate of payment of, a maternity allowance. Regulation 2 provides that these amendments are to apply where the first day of the period in respect of which payment of any of the benefits is to be made is on or after the day on which these Regulations come into force.

The amendments apply where a person is a furloughed employee for the purposes of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which is set out in the Schedule to the Coronavirus Act 2020 Functions of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme) Direction made on 15th April 202011.The claimant’s normal weekly earnings for the purpose of determining entitlement to, or the amount of, the statutory payments listed in regulation 2(2) (or in the case of maternity allowance, the average amount of the specified payment for determining entitlement to, or the amount of, that allowance) are to be calculated as if the person had not been a furloughed employee for all or part of the relevant period.

Hard copies of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme can be obtained from CJRS Policy, 3C/15 100 Parliament Street, Westminster, London SW1A 2BQ.

No regulatory impact assessment has been produced for these Regulations in view of the urgency required to provide additional financial support to those unable to work as a result of coronavirus.