Regulation 5 Amendment of the Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) RegulationsI1

The Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994^f1 are amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3).

Renumber regulation 3A^f2 (days to be treated as days of incapacity for work) as paragraph (1) of that regulation and after that paragraph add—

“(2)

Where—

(a)

any day was, as a result of official error, a day of incapacity for work in a period of incapacity for work for the purposes of the previous entitlement to incapacity benefit referred to in regulation 8D(2)(a) of the Social Security (Credits) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1975^f3 (credits for the purposes of entitlement to incapacity benefit following official error); and

(b)

that official error derived from the failure to transpose correctly information relating to credits for incapacity for work or approved training in the tax years from 1993-94 to 2007-08 from the Department for Work and Pensions’ Pension Strategy Computer System to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ computer system (National Insurance Recording System 2) or from related clerical procedures,

that day shall be treated as a day of incapacity for work for the purposes of the later claim referred to in paragraph (2)(d) of that regulation.

(3)

In this regulation—

• “Commissioner” means the Chief Social Security Commissioner or any other Social Security Commissioner and includes a tribunal of two or more Commissioners constituted under Article 16(7) of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998^f4;

• “credits for incapacity for work or approved training” means earnings credited pursuant to the Social Security (Credits) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1975 for incapacity for work or approved training^f5;

• “official error” means an error made by—

  1. (a)

     an officer of the Department or the Department for Work and Pensions or an officer of Revenue and Customs acting as such which no person outside the Department or Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs caused or to which no person outside the Department or Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs materially contributed; or

  2. (b)

     a person employed by a service provider and to which no person who was not so employed materially contributed,

  but excludes any error of law which is shown to have been an error by virtue of a subsequent decision of a Commissioner or the court;

• “service provider” means a person providing services to the Department, the Department for Work and Pensions or to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.”.

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