2012 No. 73
Health And Personal Social Services

The Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012

Made
Coming into operation
The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety1, makes the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by Articles 45, 98, 106 and 107(6) of, and paragraphs 1(b) and 1B of Schedule 15 to, the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 19722, and with the approval of the Department of Finance and Personnel insofar as they relate to the remission of charges, and in conjunction with the Department of Finance and Personnel insofar as they relate to travelling expenses.

Citation and commencement1.

These Regulations may be cited as the Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 and shall come into operation on 28th March 2012.

Amendment of Schedule 1 to the Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges Regulations (Northern Ireland) 20042.

(1)

The Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges Regulations (Northern Ireland) 20043 are amended in accordance with paragraph (2).

(2)

Column 2 of Table A in Schedule 1 (Modifications of the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987) is amended as follows—

(a)

in the modifications of regulation 62 (Calculation of grant income) of the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 19874, in the substitute paragraph (2B)(c)5—

(i)

for “regulations 38 or 39 of the Assembly Learning Grants and Loans (Higher Education) (Wales) Regulations 20096” substitute “regulations 38 to 40 of the Assembly Learning Grants and Loans (Higher Education) (Wales) Regulations 20117”; and

(ii)

for “regulations 46 to 48” substitute “regulations 48 to 51”; and

(b)

in the modifications of regulation 66A (Treatment of student loans) of those Regulations, in the first entry, for “Student Support Information Guide 2010-2011” substitute “Student Support Information Guide 2011-128”.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety on 28th March 2012

Eugene Rooney
A senior officer of the
Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Finance and Personnel insofar as the foregoing Regulations relate to travelling expenses on 28th March 2012

John McKibbin
A senior officer of the
Department of Finance and Personnel

The Department of Finance and Personnel hereby approves the foregoing Regulations insofar as they relate to the remission of charges.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Finance and Personnel on 28th March 2012

John McKibbin
A senior officer of the
Department of Finance and Personnel
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations further amend the Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 (“the principal Regulations”), which provide for remission and payment of certain charges which would otherwise be payable under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 and for payment by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety of travelling expenses incurred in attending a hospital for, amongst others, persons on low incomes, by reference to limits on their income and capital (“the low income scheme”).

In calculating a person’s resources and requirements under the principal Regulations in order to establish whether a person can claim entitlement to remission of Health Service charges and the payment of Health Services travelling expenses, a modified version of the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 is used, as set out in Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations.

Regulation 2 amends the modifications in Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations to update the references to student funding under the Assembly Learning Grants and Loans (Higher Education) (Wales) Regulations 2011. These set out the entitlement to grants and loans available to students. Certain of the amounts of student maintenance grants are disregarded in calculating the entitlement of students to remission of Health Service charges and the payment of Health Services travelling expenses under the principal Regulations.

Regulation 2 also amends the reference to the publication which describes additional loans paid under the Education (Student Loans) (Scotland) Regulations 2007. These loans are disregarded in the calculation of a student’s loan income when a person’s entitlement to remission of Health Service charges and payment of Health Services travelling expenses is being established under the principal Regulations.