In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

• “the Act” means the Social Security Act 1986;

• “attendance allowance” means—

  1. a

     an attendance allowance under section 35 of the Social Security ActF1;

  2. b

     an increase of disablement pension under section 61 or 63 of that ActF2;

  3. c

     a payment under regulations made in exercise of the power conferred by section 159(3)(b) of that Act;

  4. d

     an increase of an allowance which is payable in respect of constant attendance under section 5 of the Industrial Injuries and Diseases (Old Cases) Act 1975F3;

  5. e

     a payment by virtue of article 14, 15, 16, 43 or 44 of the Personal Injuries (Civilians) Scheme 1983F4 or any analogous payment; or

  6. f

     any payment based on need for attendance which is paid as part of a war disablement pension;

• F49“the benefit Acts" means the Contributions and Benefits Act and the Jobseekers Act 1995;

• “benefit week” has the meaning prescribed in paragraph 4 of Schedule 7 to the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987F5; F17and for the purposes of calculating any payment of income and of regulation 74(2)(a) “benefit week” shall also mean the period of 7 days ending on the day before the first day of the first benefit week following the date of claim or the last day on which income support is paid if it is in payment for less than a week;

• F21“board and lodging accommodation” means—

  1. a

     accommodation provided to a person or, if he is a member of a family, to him or any other member of his family, for a charge which is inclusive of the provision of that accommodation and at least some cooked or prepared meals which both are cooked or prepared (by a person other than the person to whom the accommodation is provided or a member of his family) and are consumed in that accommodation or associated premises; or

  2. b

     accommodation provided to a person in a hotel, guest house, lodging house or some similar establishment,

  except accommodation provided by a close relative of his or of any other member of his family, or other than on a commercial basis;

• F54“the Children Order" means the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995;

• “claimant” means a person claiming income support;

• “close relative” means a parent, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, step-parent, step-son, step-daughter, brother, sister, or the spouse of any of the preceding persons or, if that person is one of an unmarried couple, the other member of that couple;

• F36“community charge benefit” means community charge benefits under Part VII of the Contributions and Benefits Act as originally enacted;

• “concessionary payment” means a payment made under arrangements made by the Secretary of State with the consent of the Treasury which is charged either to the National Insurance Fund or to a Departmental Expenditure Vote to which payments of benefit under the Act, the Social Security Act or the Child Benefit Act 1975F6 are charged;

• F37“the Contributions and Benefits Act” means the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992;

• “co-ownership scheme” means a scheme under which a dwelling is let by a housing association and the tenant, or his personal representative, will, under the terms of the tenancy agreement or of the agreement under which he became a member of the association, be entitled, on his ceasing to be a member and subject to any condition stated in either agreement, to a sum calculated by reference directly or indirectly to the value of the dwelling;

• “couple” means a married or an unmarried couple;

• “course of study” means any full-time course of study or sandwich course whether or not a grant is made for attending it;

• “Crown tenant” means a person who occupies a dwelling under a tenancy or licence where the interest of the landlord belongs to Her Majesty in right of the Crown or to a government department or is held in trust for Her Majesty for the purposes of a government department, except (in the case of an interest belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown) where the interest is under the management of the Crown Estate Commissioners;

• F42“date of claim” means the date on which the claimant makes, or is treated as making, a claim for income support for the purposes of regulation 6 of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987;

• F32“disability living allowance” means a disability living allowance under section 37ZA of the Social Security Act;

• F57“disabled person’s tax credit” means a disabled person’s tax credit under section 129 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;

• “dwelling occupied as the home” means the dwelling together with any garage, garden and outbuildings, normally occupied by the claimant as his home including any premises not so occupied which it is impracticable or unreasonable to sell separately, in particular, in Scotland, any croft land on which the dwelling is situated.

• “earnings” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 35 or, as the case may be, 37;

• F51“earnings top-up" means the allowance paid by the Secretary of State under the Earnings Top-up Scheme;

• “employed earner” shall be construed in accordance with section 2(1)(a) of the Social Security Act;

• F18“employment” except for the purposes of section 20(3)(d) of the Act, includes any trade, business, profession, office or vocation;

• F61“employment zone” means an area within Great Britain designated for the purposes of section 60 of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 and an “employment zone programme” means a programme established for such an area or areas designed to assist claimants for a jobseeker’s allowance to obtain sustainable employment;

• F61“employment zone contractor” means a person who is undertaking the provision of facilities in respect of an employment zone programme on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education and Employment;

• “housing association” has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(1) of the Housing Associations Act 1985F7;

• F53“housing benefit expenditure" means expenditure in respect of which housing benefit is payable as specified in regulation 10(1) of the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 but does not include any such expenditure in respect of which an amount is applicable under regulation 17(1)(e) or 18(1)(f) (housing costs);

• F59“Immigration and Asylum Act" means the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;

• F60...

• “invalid carriage or other vehicle” means a vehicle propelled by petrol engine or by electric power supplied for use on the road and to be controlled by the occupant;

• F31“last day of the course” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 61 for the purposes of the definition of “period of study”;

• “liable relative” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 54;

• “lone parent” means a person who has no partner and who is responsible for, and a member of the same household as, a child or young person;

• “long tenancy” means a tenancy granted for a term of years certain exceeding twenty one years, whether or not the tenancy is, or may become, terminable before the end of that term by notice given by or to the tenant or by re-entry, forfeiture (or, in Scotland, irritancy) or otherwise and includes a lease for a term fixed by law under a grant with a covenant or obligation for perpetual renewal unless it is a lease by sub-demise from one which is not a long tenancy;

• F34“lower rate” where it relates to rates of tax has the same meaning as in the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 by virtue of section 832(1) of that Act;

• F42“maternity leave” means a period during which a woman is absent from work because she is pregnant or has given birth to a child, and at the end of which she has a right to return to work either under the terms of her contract of employment or under Part III of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978;

• “mobility allowance” means an allowance under section 37A of the Social Security ActF8;

• “mobility supplement” means any supplement under article 26A of the Naval, Military and Air Forces etc (Disablement and Death) Service Pensions Order 1983 F9 including such a supplement by virtue of any other scheme or order or under Article 25A of the Personal Injuries (Civilians) Scheme 1983F10;

• “net earnings” means such earnings as are calculated in accordance with regulation 36;

• “net profit” means such profit as is calculated in accordance with regulation 38;

• “non-dependant” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 3;

• “non-dependant deduction” means a deduction that is to be made under regulation 17(e) and paragraph 11 of Schedule 3;

• “nursing home” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 19(3);

• “occupational pension” means any pension or other periodical payment under an occupational pension scheme but does not include any discretionary payment out of a fund established for relieving hardship in particular cases;

• “partner” means where a claimant—

  1. a

     is a member of a married or an unmarried couple, the other member of that couple;

  2. b

     is married polygamously to two or more members of his household, any such member;

• “payment” includes a part of a payment;

• F43“pay period” means the period in respect of which a claimant is, or expects to be, normally paid by his employer, being a week, a fortnight, four weeks, a month or other shorter or longer period as the case may be;

• F46“pension fund holder" means with respect to a personal pension scheme or retirement annuity contract, the trustees, managers or scheme administrators, as the case may be, of the scheme or contract concerned;

• F25“period of study” means the period beginning with the start of the course of study and ending with the last day of the course or such earlier date as the student abandons it or is dismissed from it; but any period of attendance by the student at his educational establishment in connection with the course which is outside the period of the course shall be treated as part of the period of study;

• F42“personal pension scheme” has the same meaning as in F47section 1 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 and, in the case of a self-employed earner, includes a scheme approved by the Inland Revenue under Chapter IV of Part XIV of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988;

• “policy of life insurance” means any instrument by which the payment of money is assured on death (except death by accident only) or the happening of any contingency dependent on human life, or any instrument evidencing a contract which is subject to payment of premiums for a term dependent on human life;

• F20“polygamous marriage” means any marriage during the subsistence of which a party to it is married to more than one person and the ceremony of marriage took place under the law of a country which permits polygamy;

• F35“preserved right” means a preserved right for the purpose of regulation 19;

• F33“qualifying person” means a person in respect of whom payment has been made from the Fund F40or the Eileen Trust;

• F50...

• “relative” means close relative, grand-parent, grand-child, uncle, aunt, nephew or neice;

• “relevant enactment” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 16(8)(a);

• “remunerative work” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 5;

• F19“residential accommodation” except in F23regulation 19 and Schedule 3B has the meaning prescribed in regulation 21(3);

• F35“residential allowance” means the weekly amount determined in accordance with paragraph 2A of Schedule 2;

• “residential care home” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 19(3);

• F48“retirement annuity contract" means a contract or trust scheme approved under Chapter III of Part XIV of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988;

• “self-employed earner” shall be construed in accordance with section 2(1)(b) of the Social Security Act;

• “single claimant” means a claimant who neither has a partner nor is a lone parent;

• “Social Security Act” means the Social Security Act 1975F11;

• F56“sports award" means an award made by one of the Sports Councils named in section 23(2) of the National Lottery etc. Act 1993 out of sums allocated to it for distribution under that section;

• “student” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 61;

• F61“subsistence allowance” means an allowance which an employment zone contractor has agreed to pay to a person who is participating in an employment zone programme;

• “supplementary benefit” means a supplementary pension or allowance under section 1 or 4 of the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976F12;

• “terminal date” in respect of a claimant means the terminal date in his case for the purposes of regulation 7 of the Child Benefit (General) Regulations 1976 F13;

• F51“the Earnings Top-up Scheme" means the Earnings Top-up Scheme 1996

• F41“the Eileen Trust” means the charitable trust of that name established on 29th March 1993 out of funds provided by the Secretary of State for the benefit of persons eligible for payment in accordance with its provisions;

• F33“the Fund” means moneys made available from time to time by the Secretary of State for the benefit of persons eligible for payment in accordance with the provisions of a scheme established by him on 24th April 1992 or, in Scotland, on 10th April 1992;

• F39“the Independent Living (1993) Fund” means the Trust of that name established by a deed dated 25th February 1993 and made between the Secretary of State for Social Security of the one part and Robin Glover Wendt and John Shepherd of the other part;

• F39“the Independent Living (Extension) Fund” means the Trust of that name established by a deed dated 25th February 1993 and made between the Secretary of State for Social Security of the one part and Robin Glover Wendt and John Fletcher Shepherd of the other part;

• F15“the Independent Living Fund” means the charitable trust established out of funds provided by the Secretary of State for the purpose of providing financial assistance to those persons incapacitated by or otherwise suffering from very severe disablement who are in need of such assistance to enable them to live independently;

• F39“the Independent Living Funds” means the Independent Living Fund, the Independent Living (Extension) Fund and the Independent Living (1933) Fund;

• F24“the Macfarlane (Special Payments) Trust” means the trust of that name, established on 29th January 1990 partly out of funds provided by the Secretary of State, for the benefit of certain persons suffering from haemophilia;

• F30“the Macfarlane (Special Payments) (No. 2) Trust" means the trust of that name, established on 3rd May 1991 partly out of funds provided by the Secretary of State, for the benefit of certain persons suffering from haemophilia and other beneficiaries;

• F14“the Macfarlane Trust” means the charitable trust, established partly out of funds provided by the Secretary of State to the Haemophilia Society, for the relief of poverty or distress among those suffering from haemophilia;

• “training allowance” means an allowance (whether by way of periodical grants or otherwise) payable—

  1. a

     out of public funds by a Government department or by or on behalf of the F27Secretary of State for EmploymentF26, Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise;

  2. b

     to a person for his maintenance or in respect of a member of his family; and

  3. c

     for the period, or part of the period, during which he is following a course of training or instruction provided by, or in pursuance of arrangements made with, that department or approved by that department in relation to him or so provided or approved by or on behalf of F28the Secretary of State for EmploymentF26, Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise,

  but it does not include an allowance paid by any Government department to or in respect of a person by reason of the fact that he is following a course of full-time educationF22, other than under arrangements made under section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973, or is training as a teacher;

• F45“voluntary organisation” means a body, other than a public or local authority, the activities of which are carried on otherwise than for profit;

• F38“water charges” means—

  1. a

     as respects England and Wales, any water and sewerage charges under Chapter I of Part V of the Water Industry Act 1991;

  2. b

     as respects Scotland, any water and sewerage charges under Schedule 11 to the Local Government Finance Act 1992;

  in so far as such charges are in respect of the dwelling which a person occupies as his home;

• F55“welfare to work beneficiary" means a person–

  1. a

     to whom regulation 13A(1) of the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) (General) Regulations 1995 applies; and

  2. b

     who again becomes incapable of work for the purposes of Part XIIA of the Contributions and Benefits Act 1992;

• F58“working families' tax credit” means a working families' tax credit under section 128 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;

• F44“year of assessment” has the meaning prescribed in section 832(1) of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988;

• “young person” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 14.

• F16“youth training scheme” F29or youth training means—

  1. a

     arrangements made under section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973 (functions of the Secretary of State); or

  2. b

     arrangements made by the Secretary of State for persons enlisted in Her Majesty’s forces for any special term of service specified in regulations made under section 2 of the Armed Forces Act 1966 (power of Defence Council to make regulations as to engagement of persons in regular forces),

  for purposes which include the training of persons who, at the beginning of their training, are under the age of 18.

Unless the context requires otherwise, any reference to the claimant's family or, as the case may be, to a member of his family, shall be construed for the purposes of these Regulations as if it included in relation to a polygamous marriage a reference to any partner and to any child or young person who is treated as the responsibility of the claimant or his partner, where that child or young person is a member of the claimant's household.

For the purposes of these Regulations references to “benefit under the benefit Acts” shall be construed as including a reference to earnings top-up.