Explanatory note

These Regulations further amend the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 (“the Housing Benefit Regulations”) as so and as not so modified by the Housing Benefit (State Pension Credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 as set out in regulation 2(2) and the Housing Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 (“the Decisions and Appeals Regulations”).

Regulation 2(3) expands the definition of “appropriate office” to include an office dealing with state pension credit.

Regulation 2(4) and (5) provides that a person is considered to be disabled for the purpose of determining child care charge deductions if they cease to be registered as blind within the period that begins 28 weeks before the first Monday in September following their fifteenth birthday and ends on the day preceding the first Monday in September following the person’s sixteenth birthday.

Regulation 2(6), (7), (8), (10) and (11) provides that the tax rates to be used to determine the amount of tax and contributions that should be deducted to find the net amount of profit or earnings shall be the rate applicable to the assessment period.

Regulation 2(9), (12) and (13) substitutes the term “revision and supersession” for the term “review”, which reflects updated terminology.

Regulation 2(14) makes amendments consequential to the amendments made by regulation 2(20).

Regulation 2(15) revokes rules linking a claim for housing benefit to certain social security benefits. It also introduces two new rules for determining the date of claim. The first relates to bereaved or separated persons and the second provides that the date of claim is the date a claimant notifies his intention of making a claim provided he makes that claim within one month of being issued with a claim form. It also aligns the time scales for providing information and backdating claims in the Housing Benefit Regulations with those used in other benefits and in the Decisions and Appeals Regulations.

Regulation 2(16) and (17) align the time scales for providing information and backdating claims in the Housing Benefit Regulations with those used in other benefits and in the Decisions and Appeals Regulations.

Regulation 2(18) provides for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to send an instrument for the first payment of a rent allowance to the claimant, made payable to the landlord, where it has superseded an earlier decision on the claim due to a change in the claimant’s address.

Regulation 2(19) includes lone parents in the list of those who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit and who may be treated as severely disabled in the stipulated circumstances.

Regulation 2(20) extends the number of payments that should be fully disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings and paragraph (20)(b) makes amendments consequential to that change.

Regulation 3 amends the Decisions and Appeals Regulations to shorten the time before a relevant authority can terminate an award of housing benefit following the suspension of its payment.

These Regulations do not impose any charge on business.