The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1994

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations further amend the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 (S. I.1987/1971), the Housing Benefit (Supply of Information) Regulations 1988 (S. I.1988/662) and the Council Tax Benefit (General) Regulations 1992 (S. I.1992/1814) so that with respect to each benefit—

(a)they provide a definition of “personal pension scheme” and omit the definition of “boarder” (regulations 2 and 15);

(b)they further specify the amount to be deducted in certain circumstances in respect of national insurance contributions when calculating a person’s income (regulations 4, 7, 17 and 20);

(c)with respect to the calculation of the earnings of self-employed earners, they amend the provisions for calculating the weekly amount of earnings; they amend the definition of earnings in relation to certain allowances paid to assist a person in carrying on his business; and they provide that a proportion of any premium paid in respect of a personal pension scheme shall be disregarded (regulations 3, 5, 6, 16, 18 and 19);

(d)they further define the amount to be disregarded in calculating a student’s covenant income and a student’s income other than grant income and covenant income (regulations 8, 9, 21 and 22);

(e)they make further provision as to the date on which a change of circumstances is to take effect, where the change is in respect of a person’s income (regulations 11 and 23);

(f)with respect to the calculation of income other than earnings they provide a disregard where an increase of a specified benefit is payable in respect of a dependant who is not a member of the claimant’s family, and further define the amount to be disregarded in respect of payments made to a claimant where other persons occupy the claimant’s home (regulations 13 and 25);

(g)they specify the time within which authorities shall supply to the Secretary of State information as to cases in which there has been an intervention by a designated fraud officer of the authority (regulations 14 and 24).

With respect to housing benefit they further specify the extent to which a local authority may in exceptional circumstances increase a person’s maximum housing benefit (regulations 10 and 12).

These Regulations do not impose a charge on businesses.