Explanatory note

These Regulations amend—

• the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987;

• the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996;

• the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006;

• the Housing Benefit Regulations (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006;

• the Housing Benefit (Consequential Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006;

• the State Pension Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003, and

• the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008.

The main purpose of these Regulations is to align where possible the income and capital disregard provisions in the means-tested social security benefits, to ensure a consistent approach to means tests across the legislation listed above.

These Regulations also introduce a new disregard to enable the war pensions disregard to continue to apply, where appropriate, when the amount of war pension has been abated by an Armed Forces Pension Scheme payment.

These Regulations also make minor technical amendments, update some outdated references and revoke some redundant provisions from the Regulations referred to above.

Regulation 1 provides for citation and commencement and interpretation. Subject to the various definitions of “benefit week” in certain Regulations, these Regulations will come into operation on 5th January 2009.

In so far as these Regulations are required, for the purposes of regulations 5, 6 and 7, to be referred to the Social Security Advisory Committee under section 149(2) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, after agreement by the Social Security Advisory Committee, they have not been so referred by virtue of section 150(1)(b) of that Act. Otherwise they 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, that Act, are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.