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2002 No. 354

SOCIAL SECURITY

STATUTORY MATERNITY PAY; STATUTORY SICK PAY

The Social Security, Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Sick Pay (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002

  Made 19th November 2002 
  Coming into operation in accordance with regulation 1

The Department for Social Development, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 35(3), 35A(4) and (5)(a), (c)(i) and (d), 149(6), 160(9)(ea), 161(1), (3) and (7), 162(1)(b), 167(3)(b) to (d) and 171(1) to (4) of, and paragraphs 1 and 1A of Schedule 11 to, the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992[1] and sections 5(1)(m), 124(1) and (2) and 165(1) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992[2], and now vested in it[3], and of all other powers enabling it in that behalf, with the concurrence of the Treasury, in so far as such concurrence is required[4], by this statutory rule, which contains only regulations made by virtue of, or consequential upon, the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002[5], hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement and interpretation
     1.  - (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Social Security, Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Sick Pay (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 and shall come into operation -

    (2) These Regulations, (except for regulation 2(3) and (6)), shall take effect only in respect of those women whose expected week of confinement commences on or after 6th April 2003.

    (3) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954[
6] shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.

Amendment of the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations
     2.  - (1) The Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987[7] shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (6).

    (2) In regulation 2 (the maternity pay period) -

    (3) For regulation 6[13] (lower rate of statutory maternity pay) there shall be substituted the following regulation -

    (4) In regulation 23 (notice of absence from work) -

    (5) In regulation 25A[18] (provision of information relating to claims for certain other benefits) -

    (6) In regulation 28 (rounding to avoid fractional amounts) for "at the higher rate specified in Article 49(2) of the 1986 Order" there shall be substituted "at the earnings-related rate referred to in section 162(1) of the Contributions and Benefits Act".

Amendment of the Statutory Maternity Pay (Health and Social Services Employees) Regulations
     3. In regulation 2(2) of the Statutory Maternity Pay (Health and Social Services Employees) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992[20] (treatment of more than one contract of service as one contract) for "21 days" there shall be substituted "28 days".

Amendment of the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations
     4. In regulation 3 of the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1982[21] (period of entitlement ending or not arising) -

Amendment of the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) Regulations
     5. In regulation 3 of the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987[23] (modification of the maternity allowance period) -

Amendment of the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) (Earnings) Regulations
     6.  - (1) The Social Security (Maternity Allowance) (Earnings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000[26] shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (5).

    (2) In regulation 3(a) (specified payments for self-employed earners) for "the lower earnings limit in force" there shall be substituted "an amount 90 per cent. of which is equal to the weekly rate prescribed under section 162(1)(b) of the Contributions and Benefits Act that is in force".

    (3) In regulation 4 (aggregation of specified payments) -

    (4) For regulation 5 (the specified period) there shall be substituted the following regulation -

    (5) In regulation 6 (determination of average weekly amount of specified payments) -

Transitional Provision
    
7. In relation to any period before 6th April 2003, the reference to section 162(1)(b) of the Contributions and Benefits Act in regulation 6(2) is a reference to section 162(3) of that Act.

Revocations
    
8. The following regulations are hereby revoked -



Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department for Social Development on


19th November 2002.

L.S.


D. A. Baker
Senior Officer of the Department for Social Development


The Treasury hereby concur.


Jim Fitzpatrick

Nick Ainger
Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury

20th November 2002



EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)


These Regulations amend the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 ("the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations"), the Statutory Maternity Pay (Health and Social Services Employees) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 ("the Health and Social Services Employees Regulations"), the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1982 ("the Statutory Sick Pay Regulations"), the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 ("the Maternity Allowance Regulations") and the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) (Earnings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 ("the Maternity Allowance (Earnings) Regulations"), in consequence of the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 (c. 10 (N.I.)).

Regulation 2 amends the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations as follows -

Regulation 3 amends the Health and Social Services Employees Regulations to substitute 28 days for 21 days as the period of notice a woman must give her employer.

Regulation 4 amends the Statutory Sick Pay Regulations to substitute a reference to 4 weeks before the EWC in the case of women who are incapable of work wholly or partly because of pregnancy or confinement as the date on which a period of entitlement to statutory sick pay shall end or not arise.

Regulation 5 amends the Maternity Allowance Regulations to omit regulation 3(2) which previously modified the Maternity Allowance Period ("MAP") where a woman was confined more than 11 weeks before the EWC and to increase to 26 weeks the MAP for women not entitled before 11 weeks before the EWC who subsequently become entitled before being confined.

Regulation 6 amends the Maternity Allowance (Earnings) Regulations as follows -

Regulations 7 and 8 make transitional provision and consequential revocations.

Sections 35A(5)(c)(i), 160(9)(ea), 161(1) and 162(1)(b) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, some of the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made, were brought into operation for the purpose only of authorising the making of regulations on 19th November 2002, by virtue of the Social Security (2002 Act) (Commencement No. 1) Order (Northern Ireland) 2002 (S.R. 2002 No. 351 (C. 28)). As these Regulations are made before the end of the period of 6 months from the commencement date of those provisions, they are, accordingly, exempt, by virtue of section 150(5)(b) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (c. 8), from the reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.

The impact on business of the commencement of these provisions is detailed in the Regulatory Impact Assessment relating to the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 (c. 10). Copies of that Assessment may be obtained, free of charge, from the Social Security Policy and Legislation Division, Block 5, Room 5, Stormont Estate, Stormont, Belfast BT4 3SJ.


Notes:

[1] 1992 c. 7; section 35(3) was amended by regulation 2(3) of the Maternity Allowance and Statutory Maternity Pay Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994 (S.R. 1994 No. 176) and Article 50(2) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/3147 (N.I. 11), section 35A was inserted by Article 50(3) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 and subsection (5)(c)(i) is amended by section 4(1)(b) of the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 (c. 10 (N.I.)), section 160(9)(ea) is inserted by section 3(d) of the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002, section 161(1) is amended by section 1 of that Act and subsections (3) and (7) were amended by regulation 3 of the Maternity Allowance and Statutory Maternity Pay Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994, section 162 is substituted by section 2 of the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002, section 171(2) was amended by paragraph 28(2) of Schedule 3 to the Social Security Contributions (Transfer of Functions, etc.) (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/671) and paragraph 1A of Schedule 11 was inserted by paragraph 23 of Schedule 1 to that Orderback

[2] 1992 c. 8; section 124(1) was amended by paragraph 49 of Schedule 1 to the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) (Northern Ireland) Order 1994 (S.I. 1994/1898 (N.I. 12)) and section 165(1) was amended by paragraph 49 of Schedule 3 to the Social Security Contributions (Transfer of Functions, etc.) (Northern Ireland) Order 1999back

[3] See Article 8(b) of S.R. 1999 No. 481back

[4] See paragraph 1A of Schedule 11 to the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992back

[5] 2002 c. 10 (N.I.)back

[6] 1954 c. 33 (N.I.)back

[7] S.R. 1987 No. 30back

[8] Paragraph (1) was amended by regulation 2(2)(a) of S.R. 1994 No. 191 and regulation 3(2)(a) of S.R. 2000 No. 324back

[9] Paragraph (2) was substituted by regulation 2(2)(b) of S.R. 1994 No. 191back

[10] Paragraph (3) was amended by regulation 2(2)(c) of S.R. 1994 No. 191back

[11] Paragraphs (4) and (5) were added by regulation 2(2)(d) of S.R. 1994 No. 191 and paragraph (4) was amended by regulation 3(2)(b) of S.R. 2000 No. 324back

[12] Paragraph (6) was added by regulation 3(2)(c) of S.R. 2000 No. 324back

[13] Regulation 6 was amended by Article 10 of the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order (Northern Ireland) 2002 (S.R. 2002 No. 99)back

[14] Section 162 is substituted by section 2 of the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002back

[15] Paragraph (2) was amended by regulation 2(6)(a) of S.R. 1994 No. 191back

[16] Paragraph (4) was substituted by regulation 3(3) of S.R. 2000 No. 324back

[17] Section 160(4) is substituted by section 3(b) of the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002back

[18] Regulation 25A was inserted by regulation 6 of S.R. 1990 No. 112 and amended by regulation 18(3) of S.R. 1995 No. 150back

[19] Section 160(9)(ea) is inserted by section 3(d) of the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002back

[20] S.R. 1992 No. 17back

[21] S.R. 1982 No. 263back

[22] Paragraphs (4) and (5) were added by regulation 2 of S.R. 1987 No. 248 and paragraph (4) was substituted by regulation 5(b) of S.R. 1994 No. 191back

[23] S.R. 1987 No. 170back

[24] Paragraph (1) was amended by regulation 2(a) of S.R. 1997 No. 156back

[25] Paragraph (2A) was inserted by regulation 3(2) of S.R. 1994 No. 191back

[26] S.R. 2000 No. 104back

[27] S.R. 1994 No. 191back

[28] S.R. 2000 No. 324back



ISBN 0 33794400 8


  © Crown copyright 2002

Prepared 29 November 2002


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