Regulation 2 Amendment of the Income Support (General) RegulationsI1

The Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987^f1 shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (11).

At the end of regulation 5 (persons treated as engaged in remunerative work) there shall be added the following paragraphs—

“(8)

Subject to paragraph (9), a person who has not been treated as engaged in remunerative work in accordance with regulation 6(2) as a consequence of his commencing work shall be treated as engaged in remunerative work for the period specified in paragraph (10) where he ceased to be engaged in that work within the period of 5 weeks beginning on and including the date on which he commenced it.

(9)

Paragraph (8) shall not apply in the case of a person who is temporarily absent from the work referred to in regulation 6(2)(a).

(10)

A person to whom paragraph (8) applies shall be treated as engaged in remunerative work for the period commencing on and including the day after the day on which he was last engaged in the work referred to in regulation 6(2)(a) and ending on the day on which the length of that period corresponds with the length of the period in respect of which he had not been treated as engaged in remunerative work in accordance with regulation 6(2).”.

Regulation 6 (persons not treated as engaged in remunerative work) shall be renumbered paragraph (1) of regulation 6 and after the renumbered paragraph (1) there shall be added the following paragraphs—

“(2)

A lone parent shall not be treated as engaged in remunerative work for the period specified in paragraph (3) in so far as—

(a)

he is engaged in work which—

(i)

is remunerative work, and

(ii)

he is expected to be engaged in for a period of no less than 5 weeks, and

(b)

he had been, for a continuous period of 26 weeks ending on the day before the day on which he commenced the work referred to in sub-paragraph (a)—

(i)

entitled to and in receipt of income support or income-based jobseeker’s allowance, and

(ii)

a lone parent.

(3)

A person referred to in paragraph (2) shall not be treated as engaged in remunerative work for the period of 14 days commencing with and including the day on which he was first engaged in the work referred to in sub-paragraph (a) of that paragraph.”.

In the definition of “part-time employment” in both regulation 29(4D)(a) (calculation of earnings derived from employed earner’s employment and income other than earnings) and regulation 35(3)(c) (earnings of employed earners)^f2 for “6” there shall be substituted “6(1)”.

In reglulation 36(2) (calculation of net earnings of employed earners) after “13” there shall be inserted “, 15A or 15B”.

In regulation 38(2) (calculation of net profit of self-employed earners) after “13” there shall be inserted “or 15B”.

In Schedule 1B^f3 (prescribed categories of person)—

In Schedule 2 (applicable amounts) after paragraph 12(6)^f4 (additional condition for the higher pensioner and disability premiums) there shall be added the following sub-paragraph—

“(7)

A person—

(a)

to whom regulation 6(2) (persons not treated as engaged in remunerative work) applies, and

(b)

whose applicable amount immediately before he was engaged in the work referred to in regulation 6(2)(a), included a premium applicable under paragraph 11(a),

shall, for the period specified in regulation 6(3), be treated as having continued to satisfy the additional condition specified in this paragraph for the payment of that premium.”.

In Schedule 8 (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of earnings) after paragraph 15A^f5 there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“15B

In the case of a person to whom regulation 6(2) (persons not treated as engaged in remunerative work) applies, any earnings which derive from the work referred to in sub-paragraph (a) of that regulation but only to the extent that they relate to work performed during the period specified in regulation 6(3).”.

At the end of Schedule 9^f6 (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings) there shall be added the following paragraph—

“68

In the case of a person to whom regulation 6(2) (persons not treated as engaged in remunerative work) applies, any working families tax credit or disabled person’s tax credit to which section 127^f7 or as the case may be 128^f8 of the Contributions and Benefits Act refers which is paid to that person.”.

At the end of Schedule 10^f9 (capital to be disregarded) there shall be added the following paragraph—

“55

In the case of a person to whom regulation 6(2) (persons not treated as engaged in remunerative work) applies, the amount of any—

(a)

back to work bonus payable to that lone parent by way of a jobseeker’s allowance or income support in accordance with Article 28 of the Jobseekers Order or a corresponding payment under section 26 of the Jobseekers Act 1995^f10, or

(b)

child maintenance bonus payable to that lone parent by way of a jobseeker’s allowance or income support in accordance with Article 4 of the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1995^f11 or a corresponding payment under section 10 of the Child Support Act 1995^f12,

which is paid during the period specified in regulation 6(3).”.