(This note is not part of the Regulations.)
These Regulations further amend the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987, the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 and the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (“the principal sets of Regulations”).
In particular, these Regulations—
provide that certain categories of persons shall not be treated as engaged in remunerative work for the purposes of income support, substitute an out of date legislative reference in that provision and make consequential amendments (regulation 2);
prescribe the day on which working families' tax credit and disabled person’s tax credit is treated as paid for the purposes of determining a person’s income and thereby, his entitlement to income support and jobseeker’s allowance (regulation 3);
ensure that the periods that the severe disability and carer premia are payable in principal sets of Regulations remain independent of the method of payment of invalid care allowance (regulation 4);
extend the definition of relevant child care charges in housing benefit to include care provided by a child care provider approved by an organisation accredited by the Secretary of State under the scheme established by the Tax Credit (New Category of Child Care Provider) Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/3110) (regulation 5);
correct an incorrect statutory reference in the Income Support Regulations (regulations 6);
amend the definition of “supported accommodation” in housing benefit to include a Health and Social Services Board or a HSS trust (regulation 7);
revoke certain provisions relating to disregards from the principal sets of Regulations on the basis that they are now otiose (regulation 9).
Regulation 8 amends the Housing Benefit (General) (Amendment No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 to remove the requirement that, for certain warden services to be met by housing benefit where the dwelling is one of a group of dwellings, those services must be wholly or mainly for assisting persons in that group of dwellings.
In so far as these Regulations are required, for the purposes of regulations 4(4), 5 and 9(c) to be referred to the Social Security Advisory Committee under section 149(2) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, (“the 1992 Act”), after agreement by the Social Security Advisory Committee, they have not been so referred by virtue of section 150(1)(b) of that Act. Otherwise they make in relation to Northern Ireland only provision corresponding to provision contained in Regulations made by the Secretary of State for Social Security in relation to Great Britain and accordingly, by virtue of section 149(3) of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 5 to, the 1992 Act, are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.