The Income Support (General) Regulations 1987

Applicable amounts for persons in residential care and nursing homes

19.—(1) Subject to regulation 22 (reduction of applicable amounts) where—

(a)the claimant lives in a residential care home or nursing home; or

(b)if he is a member of a family—

(i)he and the members of his family live in such a home; or

(ii)he and the members of his family normally live in such a home and, where there is a period of temporary absence from the home of any member of the family, provided that the claimant or his partner lives in the home during that absence,

his weekly applicable amount shall except in a case to which regulation 21 (applicable amounts in special cases) or Part II of Schedule 4 (persons to whom regulation 19 does not apply) applies, be calculated in accordance with Part I of that Schedule.

(2) Where—

(a)a claimant immediately before 27th July 1987 was in receipt of supplementary benefit as a boarder in a residential care home which was not required to register under Part I of the Registered Homes Act 1984 because section 1(4) of that Act (registration) applied to it; and

(b)immediately before 11th April 1988 his appropriate amount fell to be determined, by virtue of regulation 3 of the Supplementary Benefit (Requirements and Resources) Amendment Regulations 1987(1) (transitional provisions), in accordance with paragraph 1 of Schedule 1A to the Supplementary Benefit Requirements Regulations 1983(2) (maximum amounts for residential care homes) or would have been so determined but for his temporary absence from the home,

his weekly applicable amount shall be calculated in accordance with Part I of Schedule 4 (applicable amounts of persons in residential care homes or nursing homes) as if the home was a residential care home within the meaning of this regulation if, and for so long as, the claimant remains resident in the same home apart from any temporary absence, and the home continues to provide accommodation with board and personal care for the claimant by reason of his old age, disablement, past or present dependence on alcohol or drugs or past or present mental disorder.

(3) In this regulation and Schedule 4—

• “nursing home” means—

  (a)

  premises which are a nursing home or mental nursing home within the meaning of the Registered Homes Act 1984(3) and which are either registered under Part II of that Act or exempt from registration under section 37 thereof (power to exempt Christian Science Homes); or

  (b)

  any premises used or intended to be used for the reception of such persons or the provision of such nursing or services as is mentioned in any paragraph of subsection (1) of section 21 or section 22 (1) of the Registered Homes Act 1984 (meaning of nursing home or mental nursing home) or, in Scotland, as are mentioned in section 10 (2) of the Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act 1938(4) (interpretation) and which are maintained or controlled by a body instituted by special Act of Parliament or incorporated by Royal Charter;

  (c)

  in Scotland,

  (i)

  premises which are a nursing home within the meaning of section 10 of the Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act 1938 which are either registered under that Act or exempt from registration under section 6 or 7 thereof (general power to exempt homes and power to exempt Christian Science Homes); or

  (ii)

  premises which are a private hospital within the meaning of section 12 of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984(5) (private hospitals), and which are registered under that Act;

• “residential care home” means an establishment—

  (a)

  registered under Part I of the Registered Homes Act 1984; or

  (b)

  which provides residential accommodation with both board and personal care for persons in need of personal care by reason of old age, disablement, past or present dependence on alcohol or drugs, or past or present mental disorder for fewer than four persons, excluding persons carrying on or intending to carry on the home or employed or intended to be employed there and their relatives, but only if—

  (i)

  at least two employed or self-employed persons (referred to in this paragraph as responsible persons) are each engaged in providing personal care to residents of the establishment for a minimum of 35 hours a week and those persons are not engaged in any other remunerative work; and

  (ii)

  each of those responsible persons has at least one year’s relevant experience in caring for persons in need of the category of personal care for which the establishment provides such care; and

  (iii)

  at least one responsible person is available throughout the day to care for residents of the establishment; and

  (iv)

  at least one responsible person is on call throughout the night to care for residents of the establishment; and

  (v)

  all residents have free access to the premises at all times; or

  (c)

  run by the Abbeyfield Society including all bodies corporate or incorporate which are affiliated to that Society; or

  (d)

  managed or provided by a body incorporated by Royal Charter or constituted by Act of Parliament other than a local social services authority; or

  (e)

  in Scotland, which is a home registered under section 61 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968(6) or is an establishment provided by a housing association registered with the Housing Corporation established by the Housing Act 1964(7) which provides care equivalent to that given in residential accommodation provided under Part IV of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968;

• “temporary absence” means—

  (a)

  in the case of a person who is over pensionable age, 52 weeks;

  (b)

  in any other case, 13 weeks.

(4) In Schedule 4 the expressions “old age”, “mental disorder”, “mental handicap”, “drug or alcohol dependence” and “disablement” have the same meanings as those expressions have for the purposes of the Registered Homes Act 1984 and Regulations made thereunder.