# The Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, Regulation 50: Interpretation

Extent: N.I.

For the purposes of this Part—
“current sanctionable failure” means a failure of the following kinds in relation to which the Department has not yet determined whether the amount of an award of benefit is to be reduced—
(a)a sanctionable failure;
(b)a JSA sanctionable failure; or
(c)a UC sanctionable failure;
“JSA sanctionable failure” means a failure by a claimant which is sanctionable under Article 8K of the Jobseekers Order;
“low-level sanction” means a reduction of an employment and support allowance in accordance with section 11J of the Act for a sanctionable failure by the claimant to comply with—
(a)a work-focused interview requirement imposed under section 11F(2) of the Act (persons subject to work preparation and work-focused interview requirement);
(b)a work preparation requirement imposed under section 11F(2) of the Act; or
(c)a requirement under section 11G of the Act (connected requirements);
“lowest-level sanction” means a reduction of an employment and support allowance in accordance with section 11J of the Act for a sanctionable failure by the claimant to comply with a requirement imposed under section 11E(2) of the Act (persons subject to work-focused interview requirement only);
“reduction period” means the number of days for which a reduction in the amount of an award of an employment and support allowance is to have effect;
“relevant failure” means—
(a)a sanctionable failure giving rise to a low-level sanction;
(b)a UC sanctionable failure giving rise to a sanction under Article 32 of the Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 to which regulation 101 of the Universal Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 applies; or
(c)a JSA sanctionable failure giving rise to a sanction under Article 8K of the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 to which regulation 22 of the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 applies;
“sanctionable failure” means a failure which is sanctionable under section 11J of the Act;
“total outstanding reduction period” means the total number of days for which no reduction has yet been applied for all of the claimant’s low-level sanctions, lowest level sanctions and reductions to which regulation 61 applies;
“UC sanctionable failure” means a failure by a claimant which is sanctionable under Article 31 or 32 of the Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2016/219/regulation/50 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/employment-and-support-allowance-regulations-northern-ireland-2016/regulation-50
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.