# The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments No. 4) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007, Note: Explanatory note

Extent: N.I.

(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 (“the Claims and Payments Regulations”), the Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (“the Decisions and Appeals Regulations”), the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (“the Housing Benefit Regulations”) and the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (“the Housing Benefit (SPC) Regulations”).
Regulation 2 amends the Claims and Payments Regulations to—
extend the list of exceptions to the general rule of the necessity to make a claim to be entitled to benefit (paragraph (2));
enable a claimant to benefit from either the linking rules in the circumstances described in regulation 6 of the Claims and Payments Regulations or the rules relating to the prescribed time for claiming benefit in regulation 19 of those Regulations and not both at the same time (paragraphs (3)(a) and (4));
provide that the transitional protection which applies for payment of child dependency increases is not lost where a disabled person goes into hospital or certain other accommodation (paragraph (3)(b) to (e));
enable a further claim for income support to be treated as made on the first day of an award of a linked benefit (paragraph (3)(f));
enable carer’s allowance to be paid from the date that entitlement first arises in the circumstances described in regulation 6(33) of the Claims and Payments Regulations (paragraph (3)(g) and (h)); and
enable arrears of benefit to be paid to a spouse or civil partner of a deceased claimant without the need for a written application to be made for such payment (paragraph (5)).
Regulation 3 amends the Decisions and Appeals Regulations to—
extend the definition of an “incapacity benefit decision” to cover an award of long term incapacity benefit under regulation 17(1) of the Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) (Transitional) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (paragraph (2));
enable the Department for Social Development (“the Department”) to revise a decision at any time where there is a non-medical change of circumstances relating to a disability or incapacity benefit decision (paragraph (3)(a));
enable the Department to revise a decision which awarded incapacity benefit from a date later than the first day of claim because of the rule contained in regulation 28(2)(b) of the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995, when the claimant subsequently passes the personal capability assessment (paragraph (3)(b));
enable the existing provision in regulation 7(2) of the Decisions and Appeals Regulations to apply only to the person being cared for and not the carer (paragraph (4)); and
amend the definition of “patient” in paragraph 6 of Schedule 2B to the Decisions and Appeals Regulations to refer to the Social Security (Hospital In-Patient) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 (paragraph (5)).
Regulations 4 and 5 amend regulation 77(1) and (2) of the Housing Benefit Regulations and regulation 57(1) and (2) of the Housing Benefit (SPC) Regulations respectively to provide that those provisions are subject to regulation 8(3) of the Housing Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001.
Regulation 6 makes a consequential revocation.
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.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2007/392/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-miscellaneous-amendments-no-4-regulations-northern-ireland-2007/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.