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Explanatory note

Original text. Later amendments are not shown.

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend Part IV of the Supplementary Benefit (Requirements) Regulations 1983 (which sets out the housing requirements of supplementary benefit claimants) in the following respects:—

  • they amend regulation 14 so that, where the home is included in a hereditament or premises of which a part only is rated or assessed as a dwelling the amounts applicable under regulations 1 Sand 17 are limited to the proportion of the amounts applicable in respect of the hereditaments or premises as a whole equal to the proportion so rated or assessed;

  • a new regulation 15 is substituted by which restrictions are placed on the amount of mortgage interest which will be met as a housing requirement during the first 16 weeks of benefit where the claimant or his partner is aged less than 60 and he was not in receipt of benefit prior to coming into force of this regulation;

  • regulation 17 is amended so that interest on loans for repairs or improvements on the home is treated in the same way as interest on a loan which qualifies under regulation 15;

  • regulation 21 is amended so that the amounts applicable as housing requirements under regulations 15 to 18 are restricted where the outgoings of the claimant’s home are unreasonably high by comparison with the outgoings of suitable alternative accommodation in the locality.

In addition, regulation 3 of these regulations amends the Supplementary Benefit (Resources) Regulations 1981 to provide that any income received under the terms of an insurance policy taken out to insure against the risk of the claimant being unable to meet the interest on a loan to which regulation 15 or 17 of the Requirements Regulations applies, is subject to certain exceptions, to be taken into account in full as a resource.

The Report of the Social Security Advisory Committee dated 13th August 1986 on the proposals relevant to those regulations and a statement showing the extent to which these regulations give effect to the Committee’s recommendations, and, in so far as they do not give effect to them, the reasons why not are contained in Command Papers 35 and 36 published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. The Committee agreed not to have referred to them the proposal as to having regard to any foster children when determining whether the home is unnecessarily large and so the housing requirements for that home ought to be restricted.