Explanatory note

These Regulations amend social security and child support regulations.

The amendments made by Part 2 provide that, for the purpose of entitlement to social security benefits, payments made to a person as part of kinship care assistance by virtue of section 73(1)(b) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (asp 8) (“the 2014 Act”) are to be disregarded or as the case may be, not taken into account as earnings, income other than earnings and as capital.

The amendments made by Part 3 relate to payments made by local authorities to persons who are providing “continuing care” by virtue of arrangements made under section 26A of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (c.36) (inserted by the 2014 Act). They provide that such payments are not to be taken into account as earnings for the purpose of entitlement to social security benefits and that persons receiving such payments are not to be regarded as being in remunerative work for the purpose of entitlement to certain social security benefits.

The amendments made by Part 4 provide that payments for kinship care or to those who are providing continuing care as referred to above are to be disregarded for certain child support purposes and that certain persons are not to be treated as persons with care in relation to liability for child support.

Part 5 amends provisions of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/213), the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/214) and the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/217) which set out categories of payments which qualify as rent for housing benefit purposes. The amendments provide that any reduction in the claimant’s rent that has been applied by a provider of social housing under an incentive scheme approved by the Secretary of State is to be disregarded in calculating rent.

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on business or civil society organisations.