Regulation 1 Citation, commencement and interpretationI1

These Regulations may be cited as the Social Security (Work-focused Interviews for Partners) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 and shall come into operation on 12th April 2004.

In these Regulations –

• “the 1998 Order” means the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998^f1;

• “benefit week” means any period of 7 days corresponding to the week in respect of which the relevant specified benefit is due to be paid;

• “claimant” means a claimant of a specified benefit who has a partner to whom these Regulations apply;

• F1“couple” means—

  1. (a)

     two people who are married to, or civil partners of, each other and are members of the same household, or

  2. (b)

     two people who are not married to, or civil partners of, each other but are living together as if spouses of each other;

• “interview” means a work-focused interview with a partner which is conducted for any or all of the following purposes –

  1. (a)

     assessing the partner’s prospects for existing or future employment (whether paid or voluntary);

  2. (b)

     assisting or encouraging the partner to enhance his prospects of such employment;

  3. (c)

     identifying activities which the partner may undertake to strengthen his existing or future prospects of employment;

  4. (d)

     identifying current or future employment or training opportunities suitable to the partner’s needs, and

  5. (e)

     identifying educational opportunities connected with the existing or future employment prospects or needs of the partner;

• “officer” means an officer of the Department or of the Department for Employment and Learning;

• “partner” means a person who is member of the same couple as the claimant, or, in a case where the claimant has more than one partner, a person who is a partner of the claimant by reason of a polygamous marriage, but only where –

  1. (a)

     F2...

  2. (b)

     both the partner and the claimant have attained the age of 18 but have not attained F3pensionable age;

• F4“pensionable age”, in the case of a man born before 6th April 1955, means the age when a woman born on the same day as the man would attain pensionable age;

• “polygamous marriage” means any marriage during the subsistence of which a party to it is married to more than one person and the ceremony of marriage took place under the law of a country which permits polygamy;

• “specified benefit” means a benefit to which section 2AA of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 applies.

For the purposes of these Regulations a person is to be treated as responsible for, and a member of the same household as, a child only where the person would be treated as being responsible for, and a member of the same household as, such a child under regulations 15 and 16 of the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987, if references in those Regulations to income support were to a specified benefit.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954^f2 shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.