Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges (Amendment No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations further amend the Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1989 (“the principal Regulations”), which provide for the remission and repayment of certain charges which would otherwise be payable under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 and for the payment by the Department of travelling expenses incurred in attending a hospital.

Regulation 2 amends the definition of “family” and adds a definition of “income-based jobseeker’s allowance”.

Regulation 3 amends regulation 4 of the principal Regulations, which contains a list of descriptions of persons entitled to full remission and payment, by removing the capital restriction which applied to persons in receipt of disability working allowance and certain members of their family. The list is also amended to include persons who are in receipt of an income-based jobseeker’s allowance, or who are entitled to an income-based jobseeker’s allowance of less than 10 pence (and therefore do not actually receive such an allowance), and certain members of their family.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 7 of the principal Regulations by removing the requirement for certain persons in receipt of disability working allowance to make a claim on a form provided for that purpose and for the Department to calculate the capital resources of such persons.

Regulation 5 amends Schedule 1A to the principal Regulations, so as to specify the period for which a notice of entitlement is effective for a person whose entitlement to an income-based jobseeker’s allowance is less than 10 pence. The amendments also omit the period previously specified for persons in receipt of disability working allowance whose capital did not exceed £8,000.