2.—(1) Paragraph 2A of Schedule 2 to the principal Regulations (applicable amounts)(1) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.
(2) In sub-paragraph (2)–
(a)for the words “(3) and (4)” there shall be substituted the words “(3), (4) and (4A)”;
(b)in head (a), for the words from “and for this purpose” to “6 days” there shall be substituted the words “or is regarded pursuant to sub-paragraph (4A) as residing in such a home”.
(3) After sub-paragraph (4) there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph–
“(4A) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (2)(a), where a person’s principal place of residence is a residential care home or nursing home, and he is temporarily absent from that home, he shall be regarded as continuing to reside in that home–
(a)where he is absent because he is a patient, for the first six weeks of any such period of absence, and for this purpose–
(i)“patient” has the meaning it has in Schedule 7 by virtue of regulation 21(3), and
(ii)periods of absence separated by not more than 28 days shall be treated as a single period of absence equal in duration to all those periods; and
(b)for the first three weeks of any other period of absence.”.