{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/income-related-benefits-subsidy-to-authorities-amendment-order-2016/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/income-related-benefits-subsidy-to-authorities-amendment-order-2016/note.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/2016/986",
  "legislation_title": "The Income-related Benefits (Subsidy to Authorities) Amendment Order 2016",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/income-related-benefits-subsidy-to-authorities-amendment-order-2016",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Order)\nThis Order amends the Income-related Benefits (Subsidy to Authorities) Order 1998 (S.I. 1998/562) (“the 1998 Order”) which provides for the calculation and payment of housing benefit subsidy to local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland which administer housing benefit. Section 140F(2) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (c.5) authorises the making, revocation or varying of an Order before, during or after the year to which it relates.\nArticle 2(2) substitutes Schedule 1 to the 1998 Order with a new Schedule 1 prescribing the sums to be used in the calculation of subsidy for the year beginning 1st April 2015.\nArticle 2(3) and Schedule 2 have effect for the purposes of determining additional amounts of subsidy payable for the year beginning with 1st April 2016. In particular, it prescribes a system for the making of additional payments of subsidy to be made in certain circumstances to local authorities who participate in the Fraud and Error Reduction Incentive Scheme (“the FERIS Scheme”), as notified by the Secretary of State to local authorities originally in November 2014 and again in February 2016.\nIn that scheme, participating authorities are given funding to carry out activities with a view to reducing fraud and error in relation to the payment of housing benefit. The Secretary of State then sets a threshold for expected performance in reducing fraud and error in a specified period for each such authority based on the authority’s performance in making such reductions in a previous equivalent period. Additional payments are then made to the authority, the amounts depending on the extent to which the authority exceeds the threshold for reducing housing benefit payments in each such period by virtue of those activities. The substituted Schedule 1A to the 1998 Order, which is inserted by article 2(3), sets out how the additional payments of subsidy in respect of the FERIS Scheme are to be calculated for that year. Authorities are placed in groups based on their caseload management information percentage for the relevant year beginning with 1st April 2014 and different amounts of the additional subsidy payments relate to each of those groups.\nHard copies of the circulars setting out the scheme and the amounts of the administration subsidy on which payments are based are available from the Department for Work and Pensions, Caxton House, Tothill Street, London SW1H 9NA.\nArticle 3 has effect for the purposes of determining subsidy payable for the year beginning with 1st April 2016. Article 3(2) amends paragraph 3 of Schedule 4A to provide that the rebate proportion figure for 2016/2017 is 0.752. Article 3(3) substitutes Part 3 of Schedule 4A to the 1998 Order in respect of weekly rent limits for authorities in England. With respect to authorities in Wales, article 3(4) substitutes Part 5 of Schedule 4A to the 1998 Order which sets out the specified amount “O” and the guideline rent increase “P” used when calculating deductions from subsidy under paragraph 4 in Part 4 of that Schedule.\nArticle 4 amends the provisions in the 1998 Order relating to subsidy in respect of certain temporary accommodation so as to deal with the fact that Part 2 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 (anaw 7) now covers homelessness responsibilities in Wales.\nAn impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on business or civil society organisations.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/986/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-28T23:19:24.806344+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}