6.—(1) The Social Security (Maternity Allowance) (Earnings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000(1) 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) –
(a)in paragraph (1) the words “other than one to which regulation 5(2) applies” shall be omitted; and
(b)paragraph (2) shall be omitted.
(4) For regulation 5 (the specified period) there shall be substituted the following regulation –
5. For the purpose of section 35A(4) and (5) of the Contributions and Benefits Act the specified period shall be the test period.”.
(5) In regulation 6 (determination of average weekly amount of specified payments) –
(a)for paragraph (1) there shall be substituted the following paragraph –
“(1) For the purpose of section 35A(4) of the Contributions and Benefits Act a woman’s average weekly amount of specified payments shall, subject to paragraph (2), be determined by dividing by 13 the payments made, or treated in accordance with these Regulations as made, to her or for her benefit, in the 13 weeks (whether consecutive or not) falling within the specified period in which such payments are greatest.”; and
(b)after paragraph (2) there shall be added the following paragraph –
“(3) Where a woman is normally paid other than weekly, the payments made or treated as made to her or for her benefit for the purposes of paragraph (1) shall be calculated by dividing the payments made to her in any week by the nearest whole number of weeks in the period in respect of which she is paid.”.