The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 14 and Savings and Transitional Provisions) Order 2019

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

Article 2 of this Order commences the Universal Credit provisions (“UC provisions”) in Part 1 of the Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/2006 (N.I. 1)) (“the Order”) that relate to universal credit (UC) and the abolition of income-related employment and support allowance and income-based jobseeker’s allowance for the cases set out in that Article.

Article 2(1) and (2) bring into force the provisions relating to UC (listed in Schedule 1 to the Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 8 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions Order 2017 (S.R. 2017 No. 190 (C. 11)) (“the No. 8 Order”) in relation to a claim for UC that is made on or after 1st February 2019 with respect to a period that begins on or after that date, where the claimant (or either of joint claimants) resides outside Northern Ireland. This includes a crown servant or a member of Her Majesty’s forces posted overseas. It also commences the UC provisions in relation to a claim for UC, and any award that is made in respect of a claim, where the claim is made on or after 1st February 2019 with respect to a period that begins on or after 1st February 2019 and, on the date on which the claim is made, the claimant resides in a postcode district which has not been included in the Lists of the Relevant Districts referred to in previous Commencement Orders.

Article 2(5) and (6) brings into force the provisions of the Order relating to the abolition of income-related employment and support allowance and income-based jobseeker’s allowance in relation to a claim for UC, employment and support allowance or jobseeker’s allowance that is made on or after 1st February 2019 with respect to a period that begins on or after that date, where the claimant (or either of joint claimants) resides outside Northern Ireland or where the claimant resides in a postcode district which has not been included in the Lists of the Relevant Districts referred to in previous Commencement Orders.

Article 2(10) applies provisions in Article 24 of the No. 8 Order to the above commencement of the UC provisions such that a claim may not be made for housing benefit, income support or a tax credit where under this Order a claim may be made for UC, subject to the exceptions in the Article.

Article 2(11) provides that a claim for universal credit may not be made by a single claimant or joint claimants where the claimant or either of the joint claimants is a “frontier worker.”

Article 3 of the Order makes changes, consequential on Article 2, to the No. 8 Order in order to:

(a) create an exception to the bar in the No. 8 Order on a person claiming housing benefit, income support or a tax credit, in the case of a claim for one of these benefits by a “frontier worker”, consequent on the restriction on claiming UC in Article 2(11) of this Order;

(b) amend the No. 8 Order to enable a frontier worker to make a claim for income-related employment and support allowance or income-based jobseeker’s allowance, given the existence of that restriction on claiming UC;

(c) remove the general exception, in the No. 8 Order, that permitted claims for tax credits by mixed-age couples (where one member is aged over state pension credit qualifying age and the other aged below it) – this does not affect the exception above.