The Benefit Cap (Housing Benefit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (“the Housing Benefit Regulations”) to make provision for a cap on the total amount of welfare benefits to which a person is entitled. They also make consequential amendments to the Housing Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 (“the Decisions and Appeals Regulations”).

Regulation 2 amends the Decisions and Appeals Regulations to allow the relevant authority to revise or supersede decisions applying the benefit cap or relating to the benefit cap, any change in the amount of a reduction and the effective date of superseding decisions.

Regulation 3 amends the Housing Benefit Regulations inserting a new Part VIIIA with new regulations 73A to 73H. These new regulations make provision for the benefit cap and other consequential amendments including rules in relation to extended payments of housing benefit which specify that the amount of an extended payment is not to be reduced due to the application of the benefit cap.

Regulation 73A provides that a benefit cap applies when the amount of welfare benefits to which a claimant or a claimant and claimant’s partner are entitled in a week exceeds the relevant amount. The relevant amount is defined in regulation 73G as £350 for a single claimant who is not responsible for a child or young person and £500 in any other case. Regulation 73G also prescribes the welfare benefits to be taken into account.

Regulation 73B makes provision relating to when the relevant authority determines whether a benefit cap applies. Although the local authority may continue to act on any information or evidence it receives, it need not make a determination relating to the benefit cap (including whether any reduction should be increased or decreased) unless it receives a notification from the Department for Social Development.

Regulation 73C makes provision as to the manner in which entitlement to welfare benefits is to be calculated where the amount of the welfare benefit paid to the claimant is not the same as the amount to which the claimant is entitled. It also makes specific provision in relation to claimants who are in receipt of housing benefit and are living in specified accommodation (as defined in regulation 73H: current exempt accommodation, managed properties, refuges and hostels). In such cases, when calculating the total amount of welfare benefits received by the claimant for the purposes of determining whether their total entitlement exceeds the relevant amount, the amount of housing benefit received should be deemed to be nil.

Regulation 73D provides that where the benefit cap applies, the relevant authority must reduce a claimant’s housing benefit by the amount by which welfare benefits exceed the relevant amount. Where such a reduction would reduce the claimant’s housing benefit below the minimum amount payable, the local authority must reduce housing benefit by such amount as would leave entitlement of that minimum amount.

Regulation 73E provides for exceptions to the benefit cap, both where the claimant is, or where the claimant and their partner are jointly entitled to working tax credit and where the claimant or the claimant’s partner was in work for 50 out of the 52 weeks before that work ended and was not entitled to income support, jobseeker’s allowance or an employment and support allowance. This applies for 39 weeks from the day after the last day in respect of which that person received payment for that work.

Regulation 73F provides for exceptions to the benefit cap where the claimant or their partner is in receipt of an employment and support allowance with a support component, attendance allowance, industrial injuries benefit, carer’s allowance or a war pension or where the claimant, their partner or a child or young person they are responsible for is in receipt of disability living allowance. It also provides for an exception to the benefit cap where the claimant, their partner or a young person they are responsible for is in receipt of an armed forces independence payment. Where a person is otherwise entitled but is not receiving disability living allowance, attendance allowance or a war disablement pension because they are in hospital or a care home, the exception will also apply.

An assessment of the impact of this instrument has been carried out. Copies of the impact assessment may be obtained from the Better Regulation Unit of the Department for Work and Pensions, 2D Caxton House, Tothill Street, London, SW1 9NA. It is also available alongside this instrument and the Explanatory Memorandum on www.legislation.gov.uk.