The State Pension Credit (Transitional and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 (“the Claims and Payments Regulations”), the Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (“the Decisions and Appeals Regulations”), the State Pension Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 and the State Pension Credit (Consequential, Transitional and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 in connection with the introduction of state pension credit on 6th October 2003.

Regulation 2 amends the State Pension Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003. In particular it –

• adds a definition of adoption leave and paternity leave;

• makes provision for persons from Montserrat;

• clarifies the provisions under which a person is treated as being or not being a member of the same household as the claimant;

• clarifies provisions in respect of certain categories of income;

• adds adoption leave and paternity leave to the periods in which a person is treated as not being in remunerative work for the purposes of housing costs;

• uprates the amounts deducted in respect of non-dependants for the purposes of housing costs;

• adds new categories of income disregards for war widowers and in respect of special war widows payments;

• provides that actual income from capital will only be taken into account in certain specified circumstances;

• amends a capital disregard in respect of relevant trust payments to persons suffering from variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease so that it also applies to single claimants;

• amends a capital disregard in respect of compensation payments received in respect of certain specified benefits;

• allows couples, where one partner is in a special occupation, to benefit from a £20 disregard;

• makes minor and technical amendments.

Regulation 3 clarifies regulation 34(7) of the State Pension Credit (Consequential, Transitional and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 as an exception to the Decisions and Appeals Regulations.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 32(6) of the Claims and Payments Regulations so as to extend the category of cases to which sub-paragraph (b) applies and inserting sub-paragraph (c).

Regulation 5 amends the Decisions and Appeals Regulations so as to provide a new ground for supersession in relation to state pension credit and new dates on which certain state pension credit decisions take effect.

Regulation 6 amends provisions concerning the circumstances in which certain persons who are subject to immigration control are eligible to be awarded state pension credit.

These Regulations 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 to, the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (c. 8), are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.

These Regulations do not impose a charge on business.