The Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Regulations 1996

Regulations 10(2) and 13(2)

SCHEDULE 1 SUMS TO BE DISREGARDED IN THE CALCULATION OF EARNINGS

1.  Any payment made to the claimant by a person who normally resides with the claimant, which is a contribution towards that person’s living and accommodation costs, except where that person is residing with the claimant in circumstances to which paragraph 2 or 3 refers.

2.  Where the claimant occupies a dwelling as his home and the dwelling is also occupied by another person and there is a contractual liability to make payments to the claimant in respect of the occupation of the dwelling by that person or a member of his family—

(a) £4 of the aggregate of any payments made in respect of any one week in respect of the occupation of the dwelling by that person or a member of his family, or by that person and a member of his family; and

(b) a further £9.25, where the aggregate of any such payments is inclusive of an amount for heating.

3.  Where the claimant occupies a dwelling as his home and he provides in that dwelling board and lodging accommodation, an amount, in respect of each person for whom such accommodation is provided for the whole or any part of a week, equal to—

(a) where the aggregate of any payments made in respect of any one week in respect of such accommodation provided to such person does not exceed £20.00, 100% of such payments; or

(b) where the aggregate of any such payments exceeds £20.00, £20.00 and 50% of the excess over £20.00.

4.  Except in the case of a claimant who is absent from Great Britain and not disqualified for receiving any benefit, pension, allowance or supplement, by virtue of the Social Security Benefit (Persons Abroad) Regulations 1975(1)—

(a) any earnings derived from employment which are payable in a country outside the United Kingdom for such period during which there is a prohibition against the transfer to the United Kingdom of those earnings;

(b) where a payment of earnings is made in a currency other than sterling, any banking charge or commission payable in converting that payment into sterling.

5.  Any earnings which are due to be paid before the date of claim and which would otherwise fall to be taken into account in the same benefit week as a payment of the same kind and from the same source.

6.  Any payment made by a local authority to the claimant with whom a person is accommodated by virtue of arrangements made under section 23(2)(a) of the Children Act 1989(2) (provision of accommodation and maintenance for a child whom they are looking after) or, as the case may be, section 21 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968(3) or by a voluntary organisation under section 59(1)(a) of the 1989 Act (provision of accommodation by voluntary organisations) or by a care authority under regulation 9 of the Boarding-out and Fostering of Children (Scotland) Regulations 1985(4) (provision of accommodation and maintenance for children in care).

7.  Any payment made by a health authority, local authority or voluntary organisation to the claimant in respect of a person who is not normally a member of the claimant’s household but is temporarily in his care.

8.  In respect of regulation 16 of the Social Security (General Benefit) Regulations 1982(5) any earnings not earned during the period of the award.

9.  Any bounty paid at intervals of at least one year and derived from employments as—

(a) a part-time member of a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of the Fire Services Acts 1947 to 1959(6)

(b) an auxiliary coastguard in respect of coast rescue activities;

(c) a person engaged part-time in the manning or launching of a lifeboat;

(d) a member of any territorial or reserve force prescribed in Part I of Schedule 3 to the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 1979(7).

10.  Any amount by way of refund of income tax deducted from profits or emoluments chargeable to income tax under Schedule D or E.

11.  In the case of employment as an employed earner, any advance of earnings or any loan made by the claimant’s employer.

Regulations 10(2) and 13(2)

SCHEDULE 2 CHILD CARE CHARGES TO BE DEDUCTED IN THE CALCULATION OF EARNINGS

1.  This Schedule applies where a claimant is incurring relevant child care charges and—

(a) is a lone parent;

(b) is a member of a couple both of whom are engaged in employment; or

(c) is a member of a couple where one member is engaged in employment and the other member is incapacitated.

2.  In this Schedule—

• “relevant child care charges” means the charges paid by the claimant for care provided for any child of the claimant’s family who is under the age of 11 years, other than charges paid in respect of the child’s compulsory education or charges paid by a claimant to a partner or by a partner to a claimant in respect of any child for whom either or any of them is responsible in accordance with section 143 of the Contributions and Benefits Act(8) (circumstances in which a person is to be treated as responsible or not responsible for another), where the care is provided—

  (a)

  by persons registered under section 71 of the Children Act 1989 (registration of child minders and persons providing day care for young children); or

  (b)

  for children aged 8 and over but under 11, out of school hours, by a school on school premises or by a local authority; or

  (c)

  by a child care scheme operating on Crown property where registration under section 71 of the Children Act 1989 is not required, or

  (d)

  in schools or establishments which are exempted from registration under section 71 of the Children Act 1989 by virtue of section 71(16) of, and paragraph 3 or 4 of Schedule 9 to, that Act,

  and shall be calculated on a weekly basis in accordance with paragraphs 4 to 7;

• “school term-time” means the school term-time applicable to the child for whom care is provided.

3.  The age of a child referred to in paragraph 2 shall be determined by reference to the age of the child at the date on which the benefit week begins.

4.  Subject to paragraphs 5 to 7, relevant child care charges shall be calculated in accordance with the formula—

where—

• X is the average weekly charge paid for child care in the most recent 4 complete weeks which fall in school term-time in respect of the child or children concerned, multiplied by 39; and

• Y is the average weekly charge paid for child care in the most recent 2 complete weeks which fall out of school term-time in respect of that child or those children, multiplied by 13.

5.  Subject to paragraph 6, where child care charges are being incurred in respect of a child who does not yet attend school, the relevant child care charges shall mean the average weekly charge paid for care provided in respect of that child in the most recent 4 complete weeks.

6.  Where in any case the charges in respect of child care are paid monthly, the average weekly charge for the purposes of paragraph 4 shall be established—

(a) where the charges are for a fixed monthly amount, by multiplying that amount by 12 and dividing the product by 52;

(b) where the charges are for variable monthly amounts, by aggregating the charges for the previous 12 months and dividing the total by 52.

7.  In a case where there is no information or insufficient information for establishing the average weekly charge paid for child care in accordance with paragraphs 4 to 6, the average weekly charge for care shall be estimated by reference to information provided by the child minder or person providing the care or, if such information is not available, by reference to information provided by the claimant.

8.  For the purposes of paragraph 1(c) the other member of a couple is incapacitated where—

(a) either council tax benefit or housing benefit is payable under Part VII of the Contributions and Benefits Act to the other member or his partner and the applicable amount of the person entitled to the benefit includes—

(i) a disability premium; or

(ii) a higher pensioner premium by virtue of the satisfaction of—

(aa) in the case of council tax benefit, paragraph 11(2)(b) of Schedule 1 to the Council Tax Benefit (General) Regulations 1992(9);

(bb) in the case of housing benefit, paragraph 10(2)(b) of Schedule 2 to the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987(10);

on account of the other member’s incapacity or either regulation 13A(1)(c) of the Council Tax Benefit (General) Regulations 1992(11) (treatment of child care charges) or, as the case may be, regulation 21A(1)(c) of the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987(12) (treatment of child care charges) applies in that person’s case;

(b) there is payable in respect of him one or more of the following pensions or allowances—

(i) long-term incapacity benefit under section 30A, 40 or 41 of the Contributions and Benefits Act(13);

(ii) attendance allowance under section 64 of that Act;

(iii) severe disablement allowance under section 68 of that Act(14);

(iv) disability living allowance under section 71 of that Act;

(v) an increase of disablement pension under section 104 of that Act;

(vi) a pension increase under a war pension scheme or an industrial injuries scheme which is analogous to an allowance or increase of disablement pension under head (ii), (iv) or (v) above;

(c) a pension or allowance to which head (ii), (iv), (v) or (vi) of sub-paragraph (b) refers, was payable on account of his incapacity but has ceased to be payable in consequence of his becoming a patient (other than a person who is serving a sentence imposed by a court in a prison or youth custody institution) who is regarded as receiving free in-patient treatment within the meaning of the Social Security (Hospital In-Patients) Regulations 1975(15);

(d) sub-paragraph (b) or (c) would apply to him if the legislative provisions referred to in those sub-paragraphs were provisions under any corresponding enactment having effect in Northern Ireland; or

(e) he has an invalid carriage or other vehicle provided to him by the Secretary of State under section 5(2)(a) of, and Schedule 2 to, the National Health Service Act 1977(16) or under section 46 of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978(17) or provided by the Department of Health and Social Services for Northern Ireland under article 30(1) of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972(18).

Regulations 10(3) and 13(3)

SCHEDULE 3 CARE CHARGES TO BE DEDUCTED IN THE CALCULATION OF EARNINGS FOR ENTITLEMENT TO INVALID CARE ALLOWANCE

1.  This Schedule applies where a claimant is—

(a) entitled to invalid care allowance under section 70 of the Contributions and Benefits Act; and

(b) incurring relevant care charges.

2.  In this Schedule —

“close relative” means a parent, son, daughter, brother, sister or partner;

“relevant care charges” means the charges paid by the claimant for care which is provided by a person, who is not a close relative of either the severely disabled person or the claimant, for—

(a)

the severely disabled person; or

(b)

any child aged under 16 on the date on which the benefit week begins in respect of whom the claimant or his partner is entitled to child benefit under section 141 of the Contributions and Benefits Act because the claimant is unable to care for any of those persons because he is carrying out duties in connection with his employment;

“severely disabled person” means the severely disabled person in respect of whom entitlement to invalid care allowance arises.

Regulation 18

SCHEDULE 4 REVOCATIONS

(1)	(2)	(3)
Regulations revoked	Reference	Extent of revocation
The Social Security Benefit (Dependency) Regulations 1977	S.I. 1977/343	Regulation 6
The Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Regulations 1978	S.I. 1978/1698	The whole of the Regulations
The Social Security (Overlapping Benefits and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1979	S.I. 1979/359	Regulation 8
The Social Security (Severe Disablement Allowance) Regulations 1984	S.I. 1984/1303	In Schedule 2, the entry relating to the Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Regulations 1978
The Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Amendment Regulations 1984	S.I. 1984/1697	The whole of the Regulations
The Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Amendment Regulations 1987	S.I. 1987/606	The whole of the Regulations
The Social Security (Abolition of Earnings Rule) (Consequential) Regulations 1989	S.I. 1989/1642	Regulation 3
The Social Security Benefit (Dependency and Computation of Earnings) Amendment Regulations 1989	S.I. 1989/1690	Regulation 3
The Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Amendment Regulations 1989	S.I. 1989/2123	The whole of the Regulations
The Social Security (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Regulations 1990	S.I. 1990/2208	Regulations 5 and 6
The Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Amendment Regulations 1992	S.I. 1992/300	The whole of the Regulations
The Social Security (Incapacity Benefit—Increases for Dependants) Regulations 1994	S.I. 1994/2945	Regulation 5
The Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) (Consequential and Transitional Amendments and Savings) Regulations 1995	S.I. 1995/829	Regulation 12
The Social Security and Child Support (Jobseeker’s Allowance) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 1996	S.I. 1996/1345	Regulation 11

(1)

1989 c. 41.

(2)

1968 c. 49.

(3)

1985/1799.

(4)

S.I. 1982/1408; the relevant amending instrument is S.I. 1996/670.

(5)

1947 c. 41; 1951 c. 27; 1959 c. 44.

(6)

S.I. 1979/591; relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1980/1975 and 1994/1553.

(7)

Section 143(3)(c)(i)–(iii) came into force on 1.4.93 under the Social Security (Consequential Provisions) Act 1992 (c. 6) section 6, Schedule 4, paragraph 5 by virtue of the Schedule to S.I.1992/2975 (C.91) to have effect until a day appointed under the Social Security (Consequential Provisions) Act 1992 (c. 6) section 6, Schedule 4, paragraph 1.

(8)

S.I. 1992/1814.

(9)

S.I. 1987/1971.

(10)

Regulation 13A was inserted by S.I. 1994/1924, regulation 2; relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1995/560 and 1995/626.

(11)

Regulation 21A was inserted by S.I. 1994/1924 regulation 5; relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1995/560 and 1995/626.

(12)

Section 30A was inserted by the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) Act 1994 (c. 18) section 1(1). Sections 40 and 41 were substituted by paragraphs 8 and 9 respectively of Schedule 1 to the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) Act 1994 (c. 18). Section 41 was amended by the Pensions Act 1995 (c. 26), Schedule 4, paragraph 21(4).

(13)

Section 68 was amended by the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) Act 1994 (c. 18) section 9(2) and (3), Schedule 1, paragraphs 11(5), 18(2), (3) and (4) and Schedule 2 and S.I. 1994/2556. Subsection (4ZA) was inserted by S.I. 1984/1303 as substituted by S.I. 1991/1747.

(14)

S.I.1975/555; the relevant amending instrument is S.I. 1992/2595.

(15)

1977 c. 49.

(16)

1978 c. 29.

(17)

S.I. 1972/1265 (N.I. 14).

(18)

Section 70 was amended by S.I. 1994/2556.