Whipple J
Judicial review – Income support – Claimants alleging scheme, by which payments made to self-employed persons whose businesses adversely affected by Coronavirus emergency, unlawfully discriminating against self-employed women who had taken maternity leave or leave relating to pregnancy in three preceding tax years
In April 2020, HM Treasury (the defendant) introduced the self-employment income support scheme (the Scheme), by way of a direction under ss 71 and 76 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 (CA 2020). Under the Scheme, payments were made to persons who carried on a business that had been adversely affected by the Coronavirus emergency. With some exceptions, payments under the Scheme were to be based on average trading profits (ATP) of the individual’s business over the preceding three full tax years (i.e. 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19).