Amendment of capital disregard provisions for income support

2.  In paragraph 7 of Schedule 10 to the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987(1) (capital to be disregarded) –

(a)in sub-paragraph (a) for “, 9 or 9A” there shall be substituted “or 9”;

(b)at the beginning there shall be inserted “—(1) Subject to sub-paragraph (2),” and at the end there shall be added the following sub-paragraphs –

“(2) In a case where the total of any arrears and, if appropriate, any concessionary payment referred to in sub-paragraph (1) relating to any one of the specified payments, benefits or allowances amounts to £5,000 or more (referred to in this sub-paragraph and in sub-paragraph (3) as the “relevant sum”) and is –

(a)paid in order to rectify, or to compensate for, an official error as defined in regulation 1(2) of the Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999(2), and

(b)received by the claimant in full on or after 14th October 2001,

sub-paragraph (1) shall have effect in relation to such arrears or concessionary payment either for a period of 52 weeks from, and including, the date of receipt, or, if the relevant sum is received in its entirety during the award of income support, for the remainder of that award if that is a longer period.

(3) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (2) “the award of income support” means –

(a)the award either of income support or of an income-based jobseeker’s allowance in which the relevant sum (or first part thereof where it is paid in more than one instalment) is received, and

(b)where that award is followed by one or more further awards which in each case may be either of income support or of an income-based jobseeker’s allowance and which, or each of which, begins immediately after the end of the previous award, such further awards until the end of the last such award, provided that for any such further awards the claimant –

(i)is the person who received the relevant sum, or

(ii)is the partner of the person who received the relevant sum, or was that person’s partner at the date of his death, or

(iii)in the case of a joint-claim jobseeker’s allowance, is a joint-claim couple either member or both members of which received the relevant sum.”.