The Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

Claimants subject to no work-related requirements

47.—(1) A claimant falls within section 11D of the Act (persons subject to no work-related requirements) if they are a claimant who—

(a) has caring responsibilities for one or more severely disabled persons for at least 35 hours a week but does not meet the conditions of entitlement to a carer’s allowance;

(b) is the responsible foster parent of a child under the age of one;

(c) is an adopter and it is 52 weeks or less since—

(i) the date on which the child was placed with the claimant, or

(ii) if the claimant requested that the 52 weeks should run from a date within 14 days before the child was expected to be placed, that date;

(d) has been enrolled on, been accepted for or is undertaking, a full-time course of study or training which is not a course of advanced education and—

(i) is under the age of 21, or is 21 and reached that age whilst undertaking the course, and

(ii) is without parental support;

(e) is entitled to an employment and support allowance which is payable at a nil rate;

(f) is pregnant and it is 11 weeks or less before her expected week of confinement; or

(g) was pregnant and it is 15 weeks or less since the date of her confinement.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3), for the purposes of section 11D of the Act, a person has regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person if the person—

(a) satisfies the conditions for entitlement to a carer’s allowance; or

(b) would satisfy those conditions but for the fact that their earnings have exceeded the limit prescribed for the purposes of that allowance.

(3) A person does not have regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person if the person derives earnings from those caring responsibilities.

(4) Paragraph (2) applies whether or not the person has made a claim for a carer’s allowance.

(5) In this regulation—

“adopter” means a person who has been matched with a child for adoption and who is, or is intended to be, the responsible carer for the child, but excluding a person who is a foster parent or close relative of the child;

“matched with a child for adoption” means an adoption agency has decided that the person would be a suitable adoptive parent for the child;

“severely disabled” has the meaning in section 70 of the Contributions and Benefits Act(1);

“without parental support” means the person is not being looked after by an authority and—

(a)

has no parent (in this definition, “parent” includes any person acting in the place of a parent);

(b)

cannot live with their parents because the person is estranged from them or there is a serious risk—

(i)

to the person’s physical or mental health, or

(ii)

that the person would suffer significant harm if the person lived with them; or

(c)

is living away from their parents, and neither parent is able to support the person financially because that parent—

(i)

has a physical or mental impairment,

(ii)

is detained in custody pending trial or sentence upon conviction or under a sentence imposed by a court, or

(iii)

is prohibited from entering or re-entering Northern Ireland.

(1)

Section 70 was amended by regulation 2(3)(c) of S.R. 1994 No. 370, regulation 2(2) and 3(2) of S.R. 2002 No.321, regulation 2(3) of S.R. 2011 No. 356 and Article 2(2) of S.I. 2013 No. 3233