Part 2: Neonatal Care Pay Section 171ZZ16: Entitlement
Section 171ZZ16 provides that an employee will be eligible for Neonatal Care Pay subject to meeting certain conditions.
	These conditions include:
	That the employee has a prescribed parental or other personal relationship with the child who is receiving, or has received, neonatal care (because they meet the conditions to be set in Regulations); and that the neonatal care continues without interruption for a period of at least seven days beginning from the day after the day on which the care starts;
	That the employee must have been continuously working for their employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the week immediately before the one in which neonatal care starts (this is known as the end of the ‘relevant week’), or if the employee is entitled to statutory maternity, paternity or adoption pay, the ‘relevant week’ will instead align with the week that is already specified as the ‘relevant week’ for that entitlement. In both cases, the employee must also be legally entitled to be in that employment.
	That, over an eight-week period ending with the end of the relevant week, the employee’s normal weekly earnings are not less than the Lower Earnings Limit (whatever this is at the end of the relevant week).
	Regulations may also add a further condition that a person will not be entitled to pay for a particular week or period unless at the start of that week or period they remain employed by the same employer.
	Neonatal care is defined as care of a medical or palliative kind specified in the regulations and must start before the end of a period of 28 days beginning with the day after the date of the child’s birth. A week is any seven- day period.
	This section also ensures that the condition requiring someone to be legally entitled to be in the employment in relation to which they are claiming statutory neonatal pay will only apply when Section 63(3) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (which makes similar provision for Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, and Statutory Paternity Pay) comes into force.