The Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 9, 21 and 23 (Amendment), Commencement No. 11, 13, 17, 19, 22, 23 and 24 (Modification), Transitional and Transitory Provisions) Order 2018

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends, in the case of the No. 9 Order (defined below), or modifies, in the case of the others, a series of prior Orders (the “prior commencement Orders”, defined below) bringing into force provisions of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (c. 5) (“the Act”) relating to universal credit (“UC”) and the abolition of income-related employment and support allowance and income-based jobseeker’s allowance. Those prior commencement Orders are:

(a) the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 9 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions and Commencement No. 8 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/983 (C. 41) (“the No. 9 Order”));

(b) the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 11 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions and Commencement No. 9 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/1511 (C. 60));

(c) the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 13 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/2657 (C. 107));

(d) the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 17 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/1583 (C. 61));

(e) the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 19 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions and Commencement No. 9 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/2321 (C. 99));

(f) the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 22 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/101 (C. 6) (“the No. 22 Order”)); and

(g) the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 24 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions and Commencement No. 9 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/1537 (C. 87) (“the No. 24 Order”)).

Articles 3 and 4 of each of the prior commencement Orders brought into force respectively provisions relating to UC in Part 1 of the Act (“the UC provisions”), as set out in Schedule 2 to the No. 9 Order, and provisions of the Act relating to the abolition of income-related employment and support allowance and income-based jobseeker’s allowance (“the amending provisions”).

The amendments by article 3(2)(b) and (g) of this Order (in the case of the No. 9 Order) and modifications by article 4 of this Order (in the case of the others) of the prior commencement Orders remove the restrictions on claiming UC (“the gateway conditions”, set out in Schedule 5 to the No. 9 Order) so that they do not apply to the specified provisions of the prior commencement Orders (for the coming into force of the UC provisions and the amending provisions).

In the case of the No. 9 Order, the amendments apply to all claims for universal credit, an employment and support allowance or a jobseeker’s allowance made on or after 7th March 2018 by claimants residing in postcode districts M43, OL6, OL7 and SK16.

In the case of the other prior commencement orders, the modified provisions are specified in the first column of the table in the Schedule to this Order, in connection with the postcode districts and part-districts specified in the corresponding entry in the second column of the table. The modifications apply by reference to residence in those areas where claims are made for universal credit, an employment and support allowance or a jobseeker’s allowance on or after the dates in the corresponding entry in the third column of the table.

Article 3(2)(a), (c) to (f) and (h) to (k) and article 5 of this Order make consequential amendments, in the case of the No. 9 Order, and consequential modifications, in the case of the others, to a number of similar provisions in each of the prior commencement Orders to remove references to meeting the gateway conditions. By virtue of the gateway conditions no longer applying, claims by couples will become possible for the first time in certain of the specified postcodes, those for which the UC provisions were commenced under the No. 22 Order and the No. 24 Order for single UC claimants only. The consequential modifications to those Orders also make provision for claims by couples.

Article 6 amends the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 21 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/33 (C. 4)) and the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 23 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/634 (C. 32) (“the No. 23 Order”)) to allow claims for housing benefit in respect of temporary accommodation in areas where universal credit is commenced without gateway conditions. The amendments come into force on 11th April 2018 with the related changes to the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/376) and the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/1230) made by the Universal Credit (Miscellaneous Amendments, Saving and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/65).

Article 7 modifies article 7 of the No. 23 Order such that, where the gateway conditions no longer apply to claims for universal credit, by virtue of article 3(2)(b) and 4 of this Order, save in specified cases a person may not make a claim for housing benefit, income support or a tax credit on a date on which, if that person made a claim for UC on the date, the UC provisions would come into force under the provisions in question.