The Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations make provision for employment and support allowance, consisting of a contributory allowance and an income-related allowance, which will replace incapacity benefit, and income support on the grounds of incapacity.

Part 1 contains provisions relating to the citation, commencement and interpretation of the Regulations and to the rounding of fractions.

Part 2 makes provision for the assessment phase which will normally last for 13 weeks from the start of the claim and which most claimants will be required to serve.

Part 3 deals with conditions of entitlement to the contributory allowance including special provision for young people who are unable to satisfy the contribution conditions.

Part 4 deals with conditions of entitlement to the income-related allowance, dealing in particular with the circumstances in which a claimant is to be treated as receiving or not receiving education.

Part 5 deals with the determination of whether or not a claimant has limited capability for work and the circumstances in which a claimant is to be treated as having or not having limited capability for work in accordance with the assessment set out in Schedule 1.

Part 6 deals with the determination of whether or not a claimant has limited capability for work-related activity and the circumstances in which a claimant is to be treated as having limited capability for work-related activity in accordance with the assessment set out in Schedule 2.

Part 7 provides for the circumstances in which the work a claimant does affects the claimant’s entitlement to employment and support allowance.

Part 8 deals with conditionality. Chapter 1 provides for the requirement to attend work-focused health-related assessments. Chapter 2 provides for the requirement to attend work-focused interviews. Chapter 3 provides for a reduction in employment and support allowance in respect of claimants who do not engage in work-focused health-related assessments or work-focused interviews. Chapter 4 provides for notification under this Part and Chapter 5 provides for the modification of the sections 11(1) and 12(1) of the Welfare Reform Act (Northern Ireland) 2007 (“the Act”) in relation to advance claims.

Part 9 deals with amounts of the allowance. Chapter 1 provides for prescribed amounts which are set out in Schedules 3, 4, and 5. Chapter 2 provides for deductions from the contributory allowance. Chapter 3 deals with the effect of statutory maternity pay, statutory adoption pay and statutory paternity pay on the contributory allowance.

Part 10 deals with the calculation of a claimant’s income and capital. Chapter 1 deals with general provisions. Chapter 2 provides for the calculation of income. Chapter 3 deals with employed earners. Chapter 4 deals with self-employed earners. Chapter 5 deals with participants in the self-employment route. Chapter 6 deals with the calculation of other income. Chapter 7 deals with the calculation of capital. Chapter 8 provides for the treatment of liable relative payments. Chapter 9 deals with the treatment of payments of child support maintenance. Chapter 10 deals with modification of the provisions which apply for purposes of calculating of the income and capital of students. Schedule 6 provides for sums which are to be disregarded in the calculation of earnings. Schedule 7 provides for sums which are to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings. Schedule 8 provides for capital which is to be disregarded.

Part 11 makes supplementary provision. Chapter 1 with miscellaneous provisions, such the number of days at the start of a period of limited capability for work that a claimant must wait a before becoming entitled to employment and support allowance, rules which enable two periods of limited capability for work separated by not more than 12 weeks to be linked together, advance awards and recovery orders. Chapter 2 provides specific rules for “work or training beneficiaries” which extend the normal linking period for certain claimants who leave employment and support allowance for work to 104 weeks. Chapter 3 deals with temporary absence from Northern Ireland. Chapter 4 provides for the circumstances in which a person is to be treated as being or not being a member of the claimant’s household.

Part 12 provides for the circumstances in which a claimant may be disqualified from receiving employment and support allowance and includes provision to deal with the situation where this would cause hardship.

Part 13 provides for cases where a claimant may suffer hardship because income which is not readily available is treated as being possessed by the claimant.

Part 14 provides for the calculation of the amounts payable for entitlement to employment and support allowance for periods of less than a week.

Sections 2(1)(a) and (c) and (4)(a) and (c), 3(1)(c), (2)(b) and (d) and (3), 4(2)(a), (3) and (6)(a) and (c), 5(2) and (3), 8(1) to (3), (4)(a) and (b), (5) and (6), 9(1) to (3) and (4)(a) and (b), 11(1), (2)(a) to (g), (3) to (5), (6)(a) and (7)(c), 12(1), (2)(a) to (h) and (3) to (7), 14(1) and (2)(a) and (b), 16(2)(a) and (4), 17, 18(1),(2) and (4), 20(2) to (7), 23(1) and (3), 24(1), (2)(b) and (3), 25(1) and (2) and 26(1) of, and paragraphs 1(4), 3(2), 4(1)(a) and (c), (3) and (4) and 6(1)(b), (2) to (5), (7) and (8) of Schedule 1 and paragraphs 1 to 7, 8(1), 9, 10, 12 and 14 of Schedule 2 to, the Act, some of the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made, were brought into operation on 1st July 2008 for the purpose of authorising the making of regulations and on 27th October 2008 for all other purposes by virtue of the Welfare Reform (2007 Act) (Commencement No. 5) Order (Northern Ireland) 2008 (S.R. 2008 No. 276 (C. 14)).

As these Regulations are made by virtue of, or consequential upon, provisions of Part 1 of the Act and are made before the end of the period of 6 months from the commencement of those provisions, they are, accordingly, exempt, by virtue of section 150(5)(b) of Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, from prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.