The Motherhood Plan & anr –v- Her Majesty’s Treasury & anr
Tuesday 13th July 2021
On 30 April 2020, HM Treasury introduced the Self Employment Income Support Scheme by way of a direction under sections 71 and 76 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. The Scheme provided for payments to those who carried on a business, which business had been adversely affected by the coronavirus emergency. With some exceptions, payments under the Scheme were to be based on average trading profits of the individual’s business over the preceding three full tax years.
The First Appellant is a registered charity which aims to end discrimination faced by pregnant women and mothers by campaigning for changes to legislation, raising awareness of these issues in the media and working with employers to change business practice and culture. The Second Appellant is a self-employed energy analyst. She has three young children. Her second child was born in 2017 and her third was born in 2018. She took maternity leave of 39 weeks after each of those children was born. As a result of that, her business income reduced significantly in the tax years 2017/18, and 2018/19.
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