Paragraph 1

in paragraph (3), the definition of “preserved rights” shall be omitted;

after paragraph (3E), there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(3F)

For the purposes of these Regulations, where a person’s principal place of residence is a residential care home or a nursing home and he is temporarily absent from that home, he shall be regarded as continuing to reside in that home—

(a)

where he is absent because he is a patient, for the first six weeks of any such period of absence and for this purpose—

(i)

“patient” has the meaning it has in Schedule 5 by virtue of regulation 85; and

(ii)

periods of absence separated by not more than 28 days shall be treated as a single period of absence equal in duration to all those periods; and

(b)

for the first three weeks of any other period of absence.”.