1. In regulation 1 (interpretation)—
(a)in paragraph (3), the definition of “preserved rights” shall be omitted;
(b)after paragraph (3E), there shall be inserted the following paragraph—
“(3F) For the purposes of these Regulations, where a person’s principal place of residence is a residential care home or a nursing home and he is temporarily absent from that home, he shall be regarded as continuing to reside in that home—
(a)where he is absent because he is a patient, for the first six weeks of any such period of absence and for this purpose—
(i)“patient” has the meaning it has in Schedule 5 by virtue of regulation 85; and
(ii)periods of absence separated by not more than 28 days shall be treated as a single period of absence equal in duration to all those periods; and
(b)for the first three weeks of any other period of absence.”.