The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments No. 5) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend:

• the Social Security (Invalid Care Allowance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1976 (“the Invalid Care Allowance Regulations”);

• the Social Security (General Benefit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1984 (“the General Benefit Regulations”);

• the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 (“the Income Support Regulations”);

• the Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994 (“the Incapacity Benefit Regulations”);

• the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (“the Incapacity for Work Regulations”);

• the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (“the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations”);

• the State Pension Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 (“the State Pension Credit Regulations”);

• the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (“the Housing Benefit Regulations”); and

• the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (“the Housing Benefit (SPC) Regulations”).

Regulation 2 amends regulation 8(1) of the Invalid Care Allowance Regulations to replace the reference to the lower earnings limit with a reference to £95·00 for the purposes of ascertaining whether a person is gainfully employed.

Regulation 3 amends regulation 14 of the General Benefit Regulations to increase from £4,472·00 to £4,602·00 the prescribed amount of earnings that does not disqualify for unemployability supplement.

Regulation 4 and 7 amend the Income Support Regulations and the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations so as to:

• replace references to repealed provisions of the Contracts of Employment and Redundancy Payments Act (Northern Ireland) 1965, the Industrial Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 and the Industrial Relations (No. 2) (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 with references to relevant provisions in the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996;

• remove other miscellaneous incorrect cross-references.

Regulations 4, 7 and 9 amend the Income Support Regulations, the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations and the Housing Benefit Regulations to disregard under the income and capital provisions:

• any payments made to unwaged trainees corresponding to an educational maintenance allowance paid pursuant to section 3 of the Employment and Training Act (Northern Ireland) 1950;

• any payments made as a result of a reduction of liability for rates under Article 30A of the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977 (rate relief in respect of dwellings).

Regulations 4, 7, 9 and the Schedule amend the Income Support Regulations, the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations and the Housing Benefit Regulations so as to:

• ensure that no notional income is taken into account in calculating benefit for a person who participates in an approved, unpaid work placement provided this is agreed before the placement starts;

• remove obsolete references arising from the cessation of the bereavement premium in April 2006;

• introduce an aggregate disregard of £20 a week of income received from sub-tenants;

• introduce a new disregard for most earnings normally paid on the termination of employment where this occurs before the date in respect of which the claimant first satisfies the conditions for entitlement to benefit.

Regulations 4 and 7 to 10 amend the Income Support Regulations, the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations, the State Pension Credit Regulations, the Housing Benefit Regulations and the Housing Benefit (SPC) Regulations so that all capital assets are taken into account by reference to their current market or surrender value.

Regulations 4, 7, 9 and 10 amend the Income Support Regulations, the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations, the Housing Benefit Regulations and the Housing Benefit (SPC) Regulations to substitute references to the “lower rate” of tax with “starting rate” following changes made by the Income Tax Act 2007.

Regulation 5 amends regulations 3A and 7 of the Incapacity Benefit Regulations to provide for certain days to be treated as days of incapacity for work and to increase the earnings limit for councillor’s allowance from £86·00 to £88·50.

Regulation 6 amends regulation 17 of the Incapacity for Work Regulations to increase the weekly limit for earnings from exempt work from £86·00 to £88·50.

Regulation 8 amends the State Pension Credit Regulations so as to:

• add “occupational pension scheme” to the definition of “pension fund holder”;

• ensure that, for the purposes of calculating notional income, only the amount of benefit which would have been in payment had the state pension been claimed shall be taken into account;

• correct a typographical error in the formula for calculating the qualifying portion of a home loan or mortgage eligible for help as housing costs where there is more than one such loan and their total is greater than £100,000.

Regulations 9 and 10 amend the Housing Benefit Regulations and the Housing Benefit (SPC) Regulations to allow a person to claim housing benefit where they move to a new dwelling within the same area and are liable to make payments in respect of that dwelling before moving in, provided other relevant conditions, including those pertaining to the reason for delay, are met.

Regulation 11 makes consequential revocations.

In so far as these Regulations are required, for the purposes of regulations 9 and 10, to be referred to the Social Security Advisory Committee under section 149(2) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, 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 Work and Pensions in relation to Great Britain and accordingly, by virtue of section 149(3) of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 5 and paragraph 7 of Schedule 5A to, that Act, are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) or, as the case may be, (2A) of that section for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee or the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council.