The Age-Related Payments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These are the first Regulations made pursuant to Article 9 of the Age-Related Payments (Northern Ireland) Order 2004. They make provision for the payment of a one-off lump sum of £200 or £100 to households with occupants who have attained the age of 65 no later than the end of the week commencing Monday 19th September 2005 and who are not in receipt of the state pension credit guarantee credit and who are ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland on any day in that week. The Regulations also provide for the payment of £50 to households with occupants who have attained the age of 70 no later than the end of the week commencing Monday 19th September 2005 and who are in receipt of the state pension credit guarantee credit and ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland on any day in that week.

Regulation 1 makes provision for citation, commencement and interpretation.

Regulations 2 and 3 provide for payment to persons over the age of 65. Regulation 2 sets out the conditions under which a single person and a member of a couple is eligible for a £200, or a £100, payment. Regulation 3 varies entitlement for qualifying individuals who are part of couples or share their household with another qualifying individual, and transfers entitlement to a payment from one member of a couple to the other in order to ensure that the payment is made to the member of the couple who is to receive the Winter Fuel Payment.

Regulations 4 and 5 provide for payments to persons over the age of 70. Regulation 4 sets out the conditions under which a single person and couples on state pension credit guarantee credit are eligible for a £50 payment. Regulation 5 transfers entitlement to a payment from one member of a couple to the other in order to ensure that the payment is made to the member of the couple who is to receive the Winter Fuel Payment. It also provides that a person who has been in a residential care home or a nursing home during the relevant week, and for whom the residential care home or nursing home was their ordinary place of residence for the 12 weeks prior to the relevant week, is not entitled to a £50 payment.

Regulation 6 disqualifies a person from receiving a payment if he has been receiving free in-patient hospital treatment continuously for 52 weeks including the relevant week, is being held in custody throughout the relevant week, or is subject to immigration control throughout that week.

Regulation 7 enables the Department to make payments without a claim as well as allowing for a claim to be made by a qualifying individual who has not automatically received a payment before 31st December 2005. It also applies the provisions of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 concerning the revision and appeal of decisions.

Regulation 8 provides that payments made under these Regulations shall not be taken into account in assessing a person’s entitlement to benefit under a statutory provision relating to social security.

Regulation 9 applies section 69 of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (which deals with the recovery of overpayments) and regulations made under it to payments under these Regulations in the same way as they apply to the benefits listed in that section.

These regulations make in relation to Northern Ireland only provision corresponding to provision contained in Regulations made by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in relation to Great Britain and accordingly, by virtue of section 149(3) of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 5 to, the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.

A regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this rule as it has no impact on the costs of business.