Amendment of the Social Security (Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations

15.—(1) The Social Security (Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1988(1) shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (6).

(2) In regulation 1(2) (interpretation)—

(a)in the definition of “benefit”(2) after “means” there shall be inserted “a jobseeker’s allowance and”, and

(b)after the definition of “Income Support Regulations” there shall be inserted the following definition—

““the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations” means the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996;”.

(3) In regulations 5(3) (offsetting prior payment against subsequent award), 8(2) (duplication and prescribed payments), 13(b) (sums to be deducted in calculating recoverable amounts) and 15(2)(d) (recovery by deduction from prescribed benefits) after the words “income support” in each place where they occur there shall be inserted “or income-based jobseeker’s allowance”.

(4) In regulation 7(1)(3) (duplication and prescribed income)—

(a)in sub-paragraph (a) after “Income Support Regulations” there shall be inserted “or, as the case may be, Part VIII of the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (income and capital)”, and

(b)in sub-paragraph (b) after “maintenance)” there shall be inserted “or, as the case may be, Chapter VIII of Part VIII of the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (child support)”.

(5) In regulations 14(1)(4) (quarterly dimunition of capital) and 17(5) (recovery from couples) after the words “income support” in each place where they occur there shall be inserted “, income based jobseeker’s allowance”.

(6) In regulation 16 (limitations on deductions from prescribed benefits)—

(a)in paragraph (4) after “income support” there shall be inserted “or income-based jobseeker’s allowance”;

(b)in paragraph (6) for the words from the beginning of the paragraph up to and including “the weekly amount” there shall be substituted—

• “Where—

  (a)

  in the calculation of the income of a person to whom income support is payable, the amount of earnings or other income falling to be taken into account is reduced by paragraphs 4 to 9 of Schedule 8 to the Income Support Regulations (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of earnings) or paragraphs 15 and 16 of Schedule 9 to those Regulations (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings); or

  (b)

  in the calculation of the income of a person to whom income-based jobseeker’s allowance is payable, the amount of earnings or other income falling to be taken into account is reduced by paragraphs 5 to 12 of Schedule 5 to the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of earnings) or paragraphs 15 and 17 of Schedule 6 to those Regulations (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings),

  the weekly amount”, and

(c)in paragraph (8)—

(i)in the definition of “personal allowance for a single claimant aged not less than 25” at the end there shall be added “or, in the case of a person who is entitled to income-based jobseeker’s allowance, the amount for the time being specified in column (2) of paragraph 1(1)(e) of Schedule 1 to the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations;”, and

(ii)in the definition of “specified benefit” for “unemployment benefit” there shall be substituted “jobseeker’s allowance”.