The Childcare (Free of Charge for Working Parents) (England) Regulations 2022

Qualifying paid work requirement: employee

16.—(1) A person who is an employee is in qualifying paid work if the person—

(a) holds a national insurance number (unless paragraph (2) applies), and

(b) meets the minimum income requirement in regulation 18 (unless paragraph (3) applies).

(2) Despite paragraph (1)(a), a person is not required to hold a national insurance number if the person is—

(a) a resident of an EEA State or Switzerland, and

(b) not an employee in the United Kingdom.

(3) Despite paragraph (1)(b), a person is not required to meet the minimum income requirement during any of the following—

(a) any period the person is on specified leave other than adoption leave of the kind mentioned in sub-paragraph (b);

(b) in the case of a person on adoption leave relating to a young child in respect of whom a declaration is being made, the period of 31 days ending before the day on which the person returns to work;

(c) in the case of a person in an EEA State or Switzerland, any period the person is, under the law of the EEA State or Switzerland, on leave of a kind substantially similar to specified leave.

(4) In this regulation—

“adoption leave” means, in relation to a person, any of the following—

(a)

a period the person is, under an employment rights enactment, absent from work during any of the following—

(i)

an adoption leave period (whether ordinary or additional);

(ii)

a shared parental leave period;

(b)

a period the person is receiving statutory adoption pay under the Social Security Act;

“employment rights enactment” means any of the following—

(a)

the Employment Rights Act 1996(1);

(b)

the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996(2);

“national insurance number” means a national insurance number allocated under any of the following—

(a)

the National Insurance Act 1965(3);

(b)

the National Insurance Act (Northern Ireland) 1966(4);

(c)

the Social Security Act 1975(5);

(d)

the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Act 1975(6);

“specified leave” means, in relation to a person, any of the following—

(a)

a period the person is, under an employment rights enactment, absent from work during any of the following—

(i)

an adoption leave period (whether ordinary or additional);

(ii)

a maternity leave period (whether ordinary or additional);

(iii)

a parental bereavement leave period;

(iv)

a shared parental leave period;

(v)

a statutory parental leave period;

(b)

a period the person is, under the Social Security Act, receiving any of the following—

(i)

state maternity allowance;

(ii)

statutory adoption pay;

(iii)

statutory maternity pay;

(iv)

statutory parental bereavement pay;

(v)

statutory paternity pay;

(vi)

statutory shared parental pay;

(vii)

statutory sick pay.

(1)

1996 c. 18.

(2)

S.I. 1996/1919 (N.I. 16).

(3)

1965 c. 51.

(4)

1966 c. 6 (N.I.).

(5)

1975 c. 14.

(6)

1975 c. 15.