# The Housing Benefit (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations further amend the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 and the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006.
Where a claimant in the private rented sector falls within the definition of “young individual”, their housing benefit is limited to the rate applicable to a room in shared accommodation (rather than the rate applicable to one-bedroom self-contained accommodation), unless they benefit from an exemption.
Regulation 2(2) amends the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 so as to extend the definition of “young individual” in regulation 2(1) to include single claimants who are under the age of 35, rather than 25 as at present, and provides for exemptions from the extension of the age range for certain homeless people and for certain offenders subject to risk management where there is a risk of serious harm to the public.
Regulation 2(3) amends regulation 13D, which provides for a period of up to 9 months during which certain existing beneficiaries are protected from reductions to housing benefit in the private rented sector introduced by the Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011. Regulation 13D provides that, at the end of that period, most claimants’ housing benefit will revert to the rate that would have been set but for this transitional protection. The amendment to regulation 13D provides that existing claimants who fall within the definition of “young individual” as a result of these Regulations (single claimants who have attained the age of 25 but who are under 35) will change to the rate applicable to a room in shared accommodation at the end of the 9 month period. The date at which their housing benefit subsequently falls to be reassessed will not change.
Regulation 3 omits redundant provisions relating to a young individual from the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006.
These Regulations make in relation to Northern Ireland only provision corresponding to provision contained in Regulations made by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in relation to Great Britain and accordingly, by virtue of section 149(3) of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 5 to, the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (c. 8), are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2011/293/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/housing-benefit-amendment-no-2-regulations-northern-ireland-2011/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.