# The Social Security (Credits and Incapacity Benefit) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations.)
These Regulations further amend the Social Security (Credits) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1975 (“the Credits Regulations”) and the Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994 (“the Incapacity Benefit Regulations”).
Regulation 2 amends the Credits Regulations by inserting a new regulation 9D to provide that, for the purposes of entitlement to any contributory benefit, certain prisoners who have had their conviction of a single offence or convictions of 2 or more offences quashed shall, upon application in writing to the Department for Social Development, be entitled to be credited with such earnings or, as the case may be, contributions to make any tax year, in which there is a week (or part of a week) during which such a prisoner was detained in legal custody, a reckonable year. The new regulation also provides for any such application to be made by electronic means.
Regulation 3 amends the Incapacity Benefit Regulations by inserting a new sub-paragraph (ba) into regulation 1B(2) to extend the relaxation of the first contribution condition for incapacity benefit to those prisoners to whom regulation 2 of these Regulations applies.
Paragraph 2(8) of Schedule 3 to the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, one of the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made, was added by Article 59(4) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 which was brought into operation, for the purpose only of authorising the making of regulations, on 3rd November 2000 and for all other purposes on 6th April 2001, by virtue of Article 2 of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (1999 Order) (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Savings Provisions) Order (Northern Ireland) 2000 (S.R. 2000 No. 332 (C. 14)).
These Regulations make in relation to Northern Ireland only provision corresponding to provision contained in Regulations made by the Secretary of State for Social Security 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 (c. 8), are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.
These Regulations do not impose a charge on business.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2001/88/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-credits-and-incapacity-benefit-amendment-regulations-northern-ireland-2001/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.