The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No.6) Regulations 2008

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend a number of different regulations relating to social security.

Regulations 2 and 4 to 9 amend the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1967) (“the Income Support Regulations”), the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/207) (“the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations”), the State Pension Credit Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/1792) (“the State Pension Credit Regulations”), the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/213) (“the Housing Benefit Regulations”), the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/214), the Council Tax Benefit Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/215) (“the Council Tax Benefit Regulations”) and the Council Tax Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/216) so as to:

• remove obsolete references to the Independent Living (Extension) Fund, the Independent Living Fund, the Independent Living (1993) Fund and the Independent Living Funds;

• replace references to the obsolete “Youth Training Scheme” with the correct term which is “youth training”;

• replace obsolete references to section 9 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 with references to section 13 of the Offender Management Act 2007 which came into force on 1st April 2008.

Regulations 2, 4, 6 and 8 amend the Income Support Regulations, the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations, the Housing Benefit Regulations and the Council Tax Benefit Regulations so as to:

• ensure that certain provisions relating to students no longer refer to the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 and, where appropriate, update references to the Education (Scotland) Act 1980;

• remove obsolete references to Community Charge Benefit.

Regulations 2, 4 and 5 amend the Income Support Regulations, the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations and the State Pension Credit Regulations to update cross-references to legislation under which NHS patients can receive treatment abroad so that such claimants can retain their benefit entitlement while they are abroad.

Regulations 2 and 4 amend the Income Support Regulations and the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations as to:

• ensure that where Working Tax Credit is awarded for an annual period a weekly amount is calculated by multiplying the daily rate by 7;

• ensure that where Working Tax Credit remains in payment for the first 4 weeks after the claimant ceased work or began working less than 16 hours a week, any such payment may be taken into account from the start of the Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance claim and for an appropriate number of weeks;

• ensure that any payment made by someone other than the claimant or the claimant’s partner towards some or all of the cost of maintaining either one of them in a care home, or an independent hospital, is treated as if the payment was possessed by the claimant or the claimant’s partner;

• to clarify that the linking rules for housing costs will also apply if benefit ceases because the claimant or the claimant’s partner is undertaking training under the Enterprise and New Towns (Scotland) Act 1990;

• ensure that a loan will qualify for the purposes of housing costs if it is taken out for the provision of separate sleeping accommodation for a person who is under the age of 20 for whom the claimant or the claimant’s partner is responsible;

• ensure that the definition of “sandwich course” contains the correct cross-references to current legislation;

• remove obsolete references to “hardship loans” from the student provisions.

Regulations 6 and 8 amend the Housing Benefit Regulations and the Council Tax Benefit Regulations to align them with Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance so that payments under section 23B of the Children Act 1989 are disregarded and incorrect references to section 28 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 are replaced with the correct reference to section 29 of that Act.

Regulation 2 amends the Income Support Regulations so as to correct references to legislation in the definition of “non dependant deduction”.

Regulation 3 amends the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1968) so as to:

• add “miscellaneous housing costs” and “hostel payments” to the priority order for debts for which a deduction from benefit could be made;

• replace an obsolete reference to “Scottish Homes” with a reference to “Communities Scotland”.

Regulation 5 amends the State Pension Credit Regulations to clarify the circumstances under which excessive housing costs could be met following a superseding decision.

Regulation 6 amends the Housing Benefit Regulations to ensure that internal cross-references to the definition of “patient” are correct.

Regulation 7 amends the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 to correct provisions relating to the decision notices so that instead of referring to “income support or an income-based jobseeker’s allowance” the notice will refer to “state pension credit”.

Regulation 8 amends the Council Tax Benefit Regulations so that state pension credit is included in the list of benefits whose cessation must be reported.

A full impact assessment has not been published for this instrument as it has no impact on private and voluntary sectors.