Annual closedown periods
Employers may close their operation or discontinue the work of one or more of their employees at a certain time every year. This is traditionally done over a holiday period, and is called a closedown period.
During a closedown period the employer requires their employees to take all or some of their annual holidays. If the employee is entitled to leave at the start of the closedown period, the Holidays Act 2003 requires that they take paid leave.
If an employee has no annual holiday entitlement for the period of the closedown, the employer must pay the employee 8% of their gross earnings since they began work or since they last became entitled to annual holidays. Alternatively, an employer and employee can agree that the employee may take annual holidays in advance to cover some or all, of the annual closedown.
Clients covered by holiday pay not entitled to a main benefit
If a client is covered by holiday pay during the annual closedown period the Holidays Act 2003 requires that they take paid leave. They would not qualify for a main benefit.
Client not covered by holiday pay
Clients not covered by holiday pay during any period of an annual closedown are unemployed for that period (that is, they are no longer in paid employment) and most clients would generally qualify for Sole Parent Support.
However, in cases where the client's annual income precludes entitlement to the benefit (that is, their income is such that Sole Parent Support would be paid at a disqualifying rate or the rate of payment would be insufficient) and they don't qualify for any other benefit, you should consider paying Emergency Maintenance Allowance on the grounds of hardship.
Additional criteria
To qualify for Emergency Maintenance Allowance there are other criteria the client must meet.
For more information see:
Legislation
- Discretionary grant on ground of hardship section 63 Social Security Act 2018
- Annual closedown periods section 29-35 Holidays Act 2003
