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

2.  In regulation 16 of the Social Security (Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1988(1) (limitations on deductions from prescribed benefits)—

(a)for paragraph (5) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

“(5) Where a person responsible for the misrepresentation of or failure to disclose a material fact has, by reason thereof—

(a)been found guilty of an offence under any statutory provision;

(b)made an admission after caution of deception or fraud for the purpose of obtaining benefit; or

(c)agreed to pay a penalty under section 109A of the Administration Act(2) and the agreement has not been withdrawn,

the amount mentioned in paragraph (4)(a) shall be 4 times 5 per cent. of the personal allowance for a single claimant aged not less than 25, that 5 per cent. being, where it is not a multiple of 10 pence, rounded to the nearest 10 pence or, if it is a multiple of 5 pence but not of 10 pence, the next higher multiple of 10 pence.”; and

(b)in paragraph (8)—

(i)before the definition of “benefit week” there shall be inserted the following definition—

““admission after caution” means an admission after a caution has been administered in accordance with a Code issued under the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989(3);”, and

(ii)the definition of “written statement after caution”(4) shall be omitted.