The Housing Benefit (General) (Amendment No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Amendment of regulation 90 of the principal Regulations

6.  In regulation 90 of the principal Regulations (frequency of payment of a rent allowance)—

(a)in paragraph (1) for “Subject to paragraphs (3) to (5)” there shall be substituted “Subject to paragraphs (2) to (5)”;

(b)for paragraph (2) there shall be substituted the following paragraphs—

“(2) Except in a case to which paragraph (2A) applies, any payment of a rent allowance shall be made, in so far as it is practicable to do so, at the end of the period in respect of which it is made.

(2A) Except in a case to which regulation 94(1A)(1) applies and subject to paragraph (2B), this paragraph applies where payment of a rent allowance is being made to a landlord (which for these purposes has the same meaning as in regulations 93 and 94 (circumstances in which payment is or may be made to a landlord or the Department of the Environment)(2), when that payment shall be made—

(a)at intervals of 4 weeks, and

(b)at the end of the period in respect of which it is made.

(2B) Where paragraph (2A) applies,

(a)in a case where the liability in respect of which the rent allowance is paid is monthly, the Executive may make payment at intervals of 1 month;

(b)in a case where the Executive is paying a rent allowance to a landlord in respect of more than one claimant, then the first such payment in respect of any claimant may be made to that landlord at such lesser interval as the Executive considers is in the best interest of the efficient administration of housing benefit.”;

(c)in paragraphs (3) and (4) at the beginning of each paragraph there shall be inserted “Except in a case to which paragraph (2A) applies,”;

(d)in paragraph (5) at the beginning for “Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3)” there shall be substituted “Subject to paragraphs (2), (2A) and (3)”.