Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the Housing Benefit (Earned Income Disregards) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (S.I. 2026/753) (“the Earned Income Disregards Regulations”) to clarify and extend the application of the earnings disregards introduced by those regulations to claimants of housing benefit.

Regulation 2 substitutes paragraph (4) of regulation 2 of the Earned Income Disregards Regulations. This substitution will ensure that the Earned Income Disregards Regulations amend paragraph 17 of Schedule 4 to the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (“the Housing Benefit Regulations”) (S.I. 2006/213) so that the new earnings disregards are taken into account when calculating the disregard threshold used in paragraph 17(3).

This substitution will also ensure that the new earnings disregards inserted by the Earned Income Disregards Regulations apply to lone parents. It removes any requirement for the claimant to be engaged in remunerative work (a term which imposes a minimum average hours requirement) in order to be eligible for the new disregard, and instead requires a claimant, or their partner, to be an employed earner or self-employed earner. It also provides for the applicable disregard amount to be shared between partners, where a claimant’s earnings are less than the total disregard amount. It also clarifies what disregard amount applies where a claimant and their partner are under 18 years of age.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary sector or community bodies is foreseen.