# The Social Security (Treatment of Arrears of Benefit) Regulations 2018, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1967) (the “IS Regulations”), the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/207) (the “JSA Regulations”), the State Pension Credit Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/1792) (the “SPC Regulations”), the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/213) (the “HB Regulations”), the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/214) (the “HB (SPC) Regulations”), the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/794) (the “ESA Regulations”) and the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/1230) (the “UC (TP) Regulations”).
The Regulations set out above, apart from the UC (TP) Regulations, currently provide for arrears, or a payment to compensate for arrears, to be disregarded when determining entitlement to an award of benefit for 52 weeks from the date of receipt. In the case of payments of £5,000 or more that are paid as a result of official error, these are disregarded for longer. In the case of the IS, JSA, HB and ESA Regulations, the payment is disregarded for 52 weeks or for the remainder of the award, whichever is the longer. In the case of the SPC and HB(SPC) Regulations, the payment is disregarded until the award comes to an end.
The amendments made by these Regulations provide for the longer disregard to apply also to arrears, or a payment to compensate for arrears, of £5,000 or more paid as a result of an error of law.
The Universal Credit Regulations 2013 provide for arrears, or a payment to compensate for arrears, to be disregarded for a period of 12 months from the date the payment is received. There is currently no provision for the payment to be disregarded for a longer period if it is paid out for official error. The amendment to the UC (TP) Regulations provides for the longer disregard to apply until the termination of the UC award where a payment of arrears has been received during an earlier award of an income-related benefit and the claimant becomes entitled to UC within one month of their earlier award terminating, or where it has been received during the UC award. This additional disregard only applies to a payment that relates to a period of entitlement to benefit which begins before migration of existing benefits to Universal Credit is completed.
A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/932/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-treatment-of-arrears-of-benefit-regulations-2018/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.