The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2014

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations )

These Regulations amend a number of different regulations relating to social security.

Regulations 2(2) to (4) and (7), 4(2) to (4) and (6), 7(2) to (5), 8 and 9 amend respectively the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1967) (“the 1987 Regulations”), the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/207) (“the 1996 Regulations”), the State Pension Credit Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/1792) (“the 2002 Regulations”), the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/213) and the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/214). These amendments replace the existing definition of, and references to, a service user group with the revised definition of, and references to, a claimant participating as a service user. This has the effect of clarifying the existing provisions and ensuring consistency with the equivalent provisions in the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/376), the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/378), the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/379) and the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/794) (“the 2008 Regulations”).

Regulation 2(5) amends paragraph 14 of Schedule 2 to the 1987 Regulations to provide that the disabled child premium is not payable to a claimant who cares for a child or young person who is in receipt of personal independence payment or armed forces independence payment if the child or young person’s capital exceeds £3,000 or if they are a long term patient.

Regulations 2(6), 4(5), 7(6) and 10(3) amend the 1987 Regulations, the 1996 Regulations, the 2002 Regulations and the 2008 Regulations respectively. These amendments change the wording of the regulation from “0.5%” to “0.5 percentage points” to make clear the operation of the provision.

Regulation 3 amends the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1968) to allow for winter fuel payment claims to be made by telephone.

Regulation 5 amends the Social Security (Penalty Notice) Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/2813) to prescribe changes to the form of notices given to certain people who are offered the opportunity to pay an administrative penalty as an alternative to prosecution for social security offences. These changes apply in respect of offences committed wholly on or after 8th May 2012 and reflect changes allowing such penalties to be offered where there has been an attempt to commit such offences, and to the amount of such penalties, made by sections 113 to 115 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (c.5).

Regulation 6 amends the Additional Pension and Social Security Pensions (Home Responsibilities) (Amendment) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/1323) to include those who become entitled to incapacity credits because their entitlement to contributory ESA has exhausted, and those who would have had or been treated as having limited capacity for work on a day but their entitlement had exhausted under section 1A of the Welfare Reform Act 2007 (c.5).

Regulation 10(2) makes minor amendments to the 2008 Regulations to regularise the drafting with similar provisions in other working age benefit legislation. The operation of the regulation is not affected.

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on businesses and civil society organisations. The instrument has no impact on the public sector.