The Welfare Reform (2010 Act) (Commencement No. 1 and Transitory Provision) Order (Northern Ireland) 2010

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order brings into operation (in whole or in part) the following provisions of the Welfare Reform Act (Northern Ireland) 2010 (“the Act”)—

a)

section 13 (mobility component);

b)

section 10 (power to direct claimant to undertake specific work-related activity);

c)

section 21 (repeal of sections 53 to 57 of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2000);

d)

Schedule 4, Part 3 (social security: other repeals); and

e)

section 34 (repeals).

Section 13 amends section 73 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 to allow people with prescribed severe visual impairments to claim the higher rate mobility component of disability living allowance.

Section 10 amends section 15 of the Welfare Reform Act (Northern Ireland) 2007 to allow the Department or the Department for Employment and Learning, in prescribed circumstances, to impose a requirement to undertake specific work-related activity on a claimant of employment and support allowance.

Section 21 of the Act and related provisions in Part 3 of Schedule 4 to the Act repeal sections 53 to 57 of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2000 which provided for the reduction of benefit payments where a person failed without reasonable excuse to comply with the requirements of a relevant community order made in respect of that person.

Sections 26(3) and (4) of the Act, which amend the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (“the 1995 Order”) to substitute “officer of the Department or of the Department for Employment and Learning” for references to “employment officer” have not yet been commenced. Article 3 makes transitory modifications to Article 10 of the 1995 Order, as amended by section 27 of the Act (which was brought into operation by section 36(1) of the Act, on Royal Assent), until the commencement of these subsections.