7.—(1) The State Pension Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003(1) shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (5).
(2) In regulation 1(2) (interpretation) for the definition of “patient” there shall be substituted the following definition—
““patient”, except in Schedule 2, means a person (other than a prisoner) who is regarded as receiving free in-patient treatment within the meaning of regulation 2(4) and (5) of the Social Security (Hospital In-Patients) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005;”.
(3) In regulation 15(4) (income for the purposes of the Act) for sub-paragraph (b) there shall be substituted the following sub-paragraph—
“(b)regulation 2 of the Social Security (Hospital In-Patients) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005;”.
(4) In Schedule 2 (housing costs)—
(a)in paragraph 1(2) in paragraph (b)(ii) of the definition of “disabled person” for “any provision of the Social Security (Hospital In-Patients) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1975” there shall be substituted “suspension or abatement because the person becomes a patient”; and
(b)in paragraph 14(7)(e)(2) for “a patient” there shall be substituted “an in-patient residing in a hospital or similar institution”.
(5) In Schedule 3 (special groups) for paragraph 2(3) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—
“2.—(1) Sub-paragraph (2) applies in the case of a claimant who is detained, or liable to be detained, under Article 53 of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (removal to hospital of persons serving sentences of imprisonment, etc.) but not if his detention continues after the date which the Secretary of State certifies would have been the earliest date on which he could have been released in respect of, or from, the prison sentence if he had not been detained in hospital.
(2) In the case of a claimant to whom paragraph (1) applies—
(a)section 2 of the Act has effect with the substitution of a reference to a nil amount for the reference to the standard minimum guarantee in subsection (3)(a) of that section; and
(b)the maximum amount of savings credit shall be taken to be nil.”.
S.R. 2003 No. 28; relevant amending regulations are S.R. 2003 No. 261
Head (e) was amended by regulation 7(2) of S.R. 2003 No. 261
Paragraph 2 was amended by regulation 7(3) of S.R. 2003 No. 261