Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Income Support (General) and Jobseeker’s Allowance (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 and shall come into operation on 2nd August 1999.

(2) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(3) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Housing costs

2.—(1) In paragraph 14 of Schedule 3(4) to the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987(5) (linking rule)—

(a)in sub-paragraph (3A)(6), after “shall” there shall be inserted “, subject to sub-paragraph (3AA),”;

(b)after sub-paragraph (3A) there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph—

“(3AA) Where the appropriate amount of a loan exceeds the amount specified in paragraph 11(5) (general provisions applying to new and existing housing costs), sub-paragraph (3A) shall not apply except—

(a)for the purposes of paragraph 6(1) or 8(1) (existing and new housing costs), or

(b)where a person has ceased to be in receipt of income support for a period of 52 weeks or less because he or his partner is a welfare to work beneficiary.”.

(2) In paragraph 13 of Schedule 2 to the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996(7) (linking rule)—

(a)in sub-paragraph (4)(8), after “shall” there shall be inserted “, subject to sub-paragraph (4A),”;

(b)after sub-paragraph (4) there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph—

“(4A) Where the appropriate amount of a loan exceeds the amount specified in paragraph 10(4) (general provisions applying to new and existing housing costs), sub-paragraph (4) shall not apply except—

(a)for the purposes of paragraph 6(1) or 7(1) (existing and new housing costs), or

(b)where a person has ceased to be in receipt of a jobseeker’s allowance for a period of 52 weeks or less because he or his partner is a welfare to work beneficiary.”.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 and the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996.

In particular, regulation 2 of these Regulations provides that where a claimant’s applicable amount includes an amount in respect of his housing costs for a loan which exceeds the appropriate amount, periods of entitlement to income support or a jobseeker’s allowance will only link for the purpose of determining continuous entitlement to those benefits prior to payment of housing costs or where the previous benefit claim ceased because the claimant or his partner was a welfare to work beneficiary.

These Regulations make in relation to Northern Ireland only provision corresponding to provision contained in Regulations made by the Secretary of State for Social Security in relation to Great Britain and accordingly, by virtue of section 149(3) of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 5 to, the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (c. 8), are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.