furlough pay following SMP

HeavyMetalMike wrote:

I'm sorry I'm too lazy to look at the "handful" of questions on furlough on this fine website.

You don't sell yourself too well do you? Too lazy to look anything up but want others to just give you the answer?

What conclusions have you reached so far and based on what?

HeavyMetalMike wrote:

,p> The SMP was then paid by the Benefits office. (so my client tells me). 

Again you need to make a bit of effort. SMP is never paid by the Benefits office.

Well
A start point is
Employed Feb 2020?
Next
Fixed or variable?

If variable easiest thing to to is average the year and treat as fixed

But starter is
Is there a real job to protect?
was the intension to return at the same hours?

The easy part of the answer (and, Yes, you are being lazy) can be obtained from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/steps-to-take-before-calculating-your-claim-... under the section headed "Employees returning from family-related statutory leave".

However, you're going to have to do some real work at your end ... as the scenario you've set out doesn't coalesce into a believable story. For instance what actually happened (in employment terms) when her first period of SMP ended? What reasons were given by the employer for refusing SMP for the 2nd pregnancy? What was her employment status after the 1st SMP and up to-date? Is she eligible to be furloughed currently?
And, as Wanderer says, the Benefits office never pays SMP (which is a type of statutory pay mandated, in certain circumstances, to be paid by employers).

All that, and more, should be considerations before you start trying to work out the amount that can be paid/claimed via furlough!

And all this pre-supposes that the employer isn't planning her redundancy as soon as the CJRS ends ... see countless other threads on here.

HeavyMetalMike wrote:

I'm trying to work out the basis for furlough pay for an employee following their period of SMP and being paid far less than normal pay. I assume that it is not correct to use only the lower SMP as the basis for the averaging and we must use the average pay of their old higher salary?

Something else you need to get clear in your thinking.
Furlough pay, and the basis for it, is a matter of the employee <-> employer relationship. It's something for them to agree together. There is no 'entitlement' to be furloughed nor have furlough pay.
Once you have established that then the separate issue is the amount the employer can claim back under the CJRS.

As I asked yesterday ... "what actually happened (in employment terms) when her first period of SMP ended? What reasons were given by the employer for refusing SMP for the 2nd pregnancy? What was her employment status after the 1st SMP and to-date?"
Obviously I don't know the answers to these questions, but they may help you work out whether she is even eligible to be furloughed currently.

There's lots of info out there on the web ... try typing into Google (other search engines are available) "can I get SMP if I become pregnant whilst still on maternity leave?" You may then be in a better position to understand what should have happened when she announced her 2nd pregnancy to her employer ... before moving on to what did actually happen and how that may affect her eligibility for CJRS - and finally considering the calculation of any claim if still appropriate.

Note: As Wanderer pointed out, how much furlough pay the employer is prepared to pay is a matter of what the employment contract says (subject to negotiation with the employee). The only correlation with CJRS is that the amount claimed must be paid over to the employee (as a minimum).