Income-related benefits
Income support and unemployment
15.—(1) In Article 21 of the 1986 Order (income-related benefits) in paragraph (3)(d)(i) (availability for employment as a condition for income support) after the words “available for” there shall be inserted the words “, and actively seeking,”.
(2) In paragraph (12) of that Article, for sub-paragraph (d) (regulations defining availability for) employment etc.) there shall be substituted the following sub-paragraph—
“(d)as to circumstances in which a person is or is not to be treated as—
(i)engaged or normally engaged in remunerative work;
(ii)available for employment; or
(iii)actively seeking employment;”.
Housing benefit to take the form of payments or reductions
16.—(1) In Article 29 of the 1986 Order (arrangements for housing benefit) after paragraph (1) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—
“(1A) The rebates and allowances referred to in paragraph (1) may take any of the following forms, that is to say—
(a)a payment or payments by the Executive or the Department of the Environment, as the case may be, to the person entitled to the benefit;
(b)a reduction in the amount of any payments which that person is liable to make to the Executive or the Department of the Environment, as the case may be, by way of rent or rates; or
(c)such a payment or payments and such a reduction;
and in any statutory provision (whenever passed or made) “pay”, in relation to housing benefit, includes discharge in any of those forms.”.
(2) Paragraph (1) shall be deemed to have come into operation on 1st April 1988.
Housing benefit grant
17. In Article 31 of the 1986 Order for paragraph (4) (conditions for payment of grant) there shall be substituted the following paragraphs—
“(4) A grant under this Article shall be payable by the Department at such time and in such manner as the Department may think fit.
(5) Unless the Department otherwise determines, a grant under this Article shall not be payable until the Executive has made a claim for it in such form as the Department may determine.
(6) The Department may withhold from the Executive so much of any grant under this Article as it thinks fit until either—
(a)the Executive has supplied it with prescribed particulars relating to its claim for a grant and complied with prescribed conditions as to records, certificates, audit or otherwise; or
(b)the Department is satisfied that there is a good reason for the Executive’s failure to supply those particulars or comply with those conditions.
(7) If the Executive fails to make a claim for a grant within such period as the Department considers reasonable, it may withhold from the Executive such part of the grant as it thinks fit for so long as it thinks fit.
(8) Where the amount of the grant paid to the Executive for any year is found to be incorrect, the amount payable to it for any subsequent year may be adjusted for the purpose of rectifying that mistake in whole or in part.”.
Expenses in making transitional payments relating to income support and housing benefit
18.—(1) Any expenses of the Department or the Department of the Environment in making payments to persons falling within paragraph (2) or (3) may be paid out of money appropriated by Measure.
(2) A person falls within this paragraph if—
(a)he was entitled to supplementary benefit immediately before 11th April 1988, but
(b)he did not become entitled to income support in respect of the week beginning with that day.
(3) A person falls within this paragraph if he was entitled to any one or more of the former housing-related benefits in respect of a qualifying week but either—
(a)he did not become entitled to housing benefit under Part III of the 1986 Order in respect of the commencement week, or
(b)the amount of any such housing benefit to which he became entitled in respect of that week was less than the amount of the former housing-related benefits to which he had been entitled in respect of the qualifying week.
(4) In this Article—
“commencement day” means the day on which the new provisions came into operation in the case of the person in question (1st or 4th April 1988, according to the circumstances);
“commencement week”, in relation to any person, means the week beginning with the commencement day in his case;
“the former housing-related benefits” means—
rent rebates, rate rebates and rent allowances, within the meaning of the Housing Benefits (Northern Ireland) Order 1983(1); and
housing benefit supplement;
“the new provisions” means the following provisions of Part III of the 1986 Order, so far as relating to housing benefit, that is to say, Articles 21 to 23, 29 and 30;
“qualifying week”, in relation to any person, means any week beginning on or after 21st March 1988 and ending before the commencement day in his case;
“week” means a period of 7 days.
(5) For the purposes of this Article—
(a)a person shall be regarded as having been entitled to housing benefit supplement in respect of a week if an amount was applicable in respect of him under regulation 19A of the Supplementary Benefit (Requirements) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1983(2) in respect of that week; and
(b)the amount of housing benefit supplement to which he was entitled in respect of that week shall be taken to be an amount equal to the amount so applicable.