3.—(1) No fee is payable under these Regulations by an appellant who, at the time that the fee would otherwise become payable, is in receipt of any qualifying benefit.
(2) The following are qualifying benefits for the purpose of paragraph (1)—
(a)income support under the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992(1);
(b)working tax credit under the Tax Credits Act 2002(2), provided that—
(i)child tax credit is being paid to the appellant, or otherwise following a claim made jointly by the appellant and another person as a couple under section 3(3) of that Act(3); or
(ii)there is a disability element or severe disability element (or both) to the tax credit received by the appellant,
and the gross annual income taken into account for the calculation of the working tax credit is £15,460 or less;
(c)income-based jobseeker’s allowance under the Jobseekers Act 1995(4);
(d)guarantee credit under the State Pension Credit Act 2002(5).
Section 3 is amended by the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (c. 33) Schedule 24, Part 14.