Article 7 Computation of loss of earnings
For the purposes of section 2(6)(a) of the Act and of this scheme the amount representing a person's loss of earnings due to the relevant injury or disease shall, subject to the provisions of article 10(3) and of paragraph (5) of this article be ascertained by comparing the standard of remuneration obtaining during the period of 12 months, or such shorter period as the appropriate determining authority may determine, ending with the day on which that person makes a claim for an allowance, in the class of employment in which he was employed at the time when the accident happened with the amount which he was earning or able to earn during the said period in some suitable employment or business.
Where the amount representing a person's loss of earnings has been ascertained in accordance with paragraph (1) of this article and the period taken into account for that purpose was 3 months or less, a final calculation of that person's loss of earnings shall be made 6 months after the date on which the claim was made for the purpose of comparing the standard of remuneration obtaining during that later period in the class of employment in which he was employed at the time when the accident happened or the disease developed with the amount which he was earning or able to earn during the said period in some suitable employment or business.
In assessing, in relation to any person, the standard of remuneration in any class of employment, regard shall be had to that person's reasonable prospects of advancement and the class of employment in which he was employed at the time when the accident happened shall be treated, for this purpose, as extending to and including employment in the capacities to which persons so employed are, in the normal course, advanced and to which, if he had continued to be so employed without the accident having happened, he would have had at least the normal prospects of advancement.
Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this article, in any case where lesser incapacity allowance was in payment to a person before 15th November 1976 and that allowance is based on a computation of the loss of earnings due to the relevant injury or disease at a certain amount, that amount shall continue to represent that person's loss of earnings for the purposes of this scheme.
In ascertaining the amount representing a person's weekly loss of earnings under paragraph (1) of this article—
where the class of employment in which he was employed at the time when the accident happened has ceased to exist or cannot be related to the wage structure obtaining from time to time in the industry in which he was employed at that time, the standard of remuneration shall be taken to be such as is appropriate, having regard to all the circumstances of the case;
in a case of disease, where a person proves that he left any class of employment as a result of the relevant disease before the date which was treated as his date of disablement from that disease for the purposes of the Acts relating to workmen's compensation, then any class of employment which he so left may be treated as the class of employment in which he was employed on the said date of disablement if it would have been so treated had the said date of disablement fallen immediately before he left that class of employment;
the reference to the amount which a person was earning or able to earn in some suitable employment or business shall be taken as referring to such amount as that person would have been able to earn but for the supervening effects of an injury or disease other than the relevant injury or discase, or of physical or mental infirmity due to old age or of that person's retirement from any such employment or business;
the amount which represents a person's weekly loss of earnings under paragraph (1) of this article may be determined without having regard to the rules for calculating the weekly payments in the case of partial incapacity under the provisions relating to his workmen's compensation.