These Regulations amend the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 (“the Claims and Payments Regulations”) and the State Pension Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 (“the State Pension Credit Regulations”).

Regulation 2(2) inserts a definition of “working age benefit” into regulation 2(1) of the Claims and Payments Regulations (this term is used in new regulation 22D of those Regulations).

Regulation 2(5) inserts regulations 22C and 22D into the Claims and Payments Regulations. The effect of regulation 22C is to enable retirement pension to be paid weekly, fortnightly, 4 weekly, 13 weekly or annually in arrears and to enable a person’s payday to be determined in accordance with their national insurance number. The effect of regulation 22D is to enable retirement pension to be paid at a daily rate for part-weeks where specified conditions are satisfied.

Regulation 2(7) inserts regulation 26BA into the Claims and Payments Regulations to enable state pension credit to be paid weekly, fortnightly, 4 weekly or 13 weekly in arrears and to enable a person’s payday to be determined in accordance with their national insurance number.

The remaining provisions of regulation 2 make consequential amendments to the Claims and Payments Regulations.

Regulation 3(3) amends regulation 13A of the State Pension Credit Regulations to enable income to be taken into account for the purposes of determining the amount of the guarantee credit payable for part-week payment of state pension credit. It also removes the words in regulation 13A(3) which enable any fraction of a penny to be rounded up to the nearest penny. Calculations relating to fractions of a penny in respect of state pension credit will be determined in accordance with regulation 28 of the Claims and Payments Regulations. Regulation 3(2) and (4) make consequential amendments to State Pension Credit Regulations.

Regulation 4 makes a consequential revocation.

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, are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.