The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022

Regulation 1 provides for citation and commencement.

Regulations 2 and 3 enable certain persons to access income-related benefits upon arrival in Northern Ireland from Ukraine provided they meet the other relevant entitlement conditions.

Those regulations amend the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987, the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996, the State Pension Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 (“the State Pension Credit Regulations”), the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 and the Universal Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 (“the Universal Credit Regulations”) - “the income-related benefit regulations”.

The income-related benefit regulations provide that a person is ineligible for benefit where he or she is a “person from abroad”, “a person not in Northern Ireland” (for the purposes of the State Pension Credit Regulations), or “a person treated as not being in Northern Ireland” (for the purposes of the Universal Credit Regulations); that is to say where the person is not habitually resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the Republic of Ireland, subject to a list of exemptions.

Regulations 2(3) and 3(3) insert a new category into the list of persons who are exempted from having to satisfy the habitual residence test. Those persons are those in Northern Ireland who were residing in Ukraine immediately before 1st January 2022 and left Ukraine in connection with the Russian invasion which took place on 24th February 2022 and have either been granted leave in accordance with immigration rules made under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 or who have a right of abode in the United Kingdom within the meaning given in section 2 of that Act.

Regulations 2(4) and 3(4) make amendments so as to provide that any person who has leave outside the immigration rules is to be treated as exempted from having to satisfy the habitual residence test. Regulations 2(2) and 3(2) make amendments which are consequential to those amendments.

Regulations 4 and 5 enable certain persons to access disability and carer’s benefits upon arrival in Northern Ireland from Ukraine where they have left Ukraine for the reasons given above, provided they meet the other relevant entitlement conditions.

Regulation 4 amends the Social Security (Invalid Care Allowance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1976, the Social Security (Attendance Allowance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 and the Social Security (Disability Living Allowance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 respectively, and regulation 5 amends the Personal Independence Payment Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, to exempt the same group of people from the past presence test. This is the test which normally has to be fulfilled in order to claim Carer’s Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment respectively. The past presence test normally requires that an individual has been present in Northern Ireland for a specified period of time to be eligible for those benefits. These amendments also remove the habitual residence requirement for entitlement to disability benefits which would otherwise apply to refugees and those who have humanitarian protection, or their dependants.

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, are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.