The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017

Amendment of the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008

8.  In regulation 63 of the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008(1) (reduction of employment and support allowance)—

(a) for paragraph (7) substitute—

“(7) The fixed period that applies in the circumstances described in the first column of the following table is set out in the second column.

Circumstances applicable to claimant’s case	Fixed period
Where there has been no previous failure by the claimant that falls within paragraph (8).	1 week
Where there have been one or more previous failures by the claimant that fall within paragraph (8) and the date of the most recent previous failure is not within 52 weeks beginning with and including the date of the current failure.	1 week
Where there have been one or more previous failures by the claimant that fall within paragraph (8) and the date of the most recent previous failure is within 52 weeks, but not within 2 weeks, beginning with and including the date of the current failure and the period of reduction applicable to the most recent previous failure is or, but for paragraph (3), would have been—
(a) 1 week	2 weeks
(b) 2 weeks	4 weeks
(c) 4 weeks.	4 weeks
Where there have been one or more previous failures by the claimant that fall within paragraph (8) and the date of the most recent previous failure is within 2 weeks beginning with and including the date of the current failure and the period of reduction applicable to the most recent previous failure is or, but for paragraph (3), would have been—
(a) 1 week	1 week
(b) 2 weeks	2 weeks
(c) 4 weeks.	4 weeks.”;

(b) in paragraph (8)—

(i) at the end of sub-paragraph (a) insert “and”;

(ii) at sub-paragraph (b) for “XXth November 2016” substitute “the date on which the Employment and Support Allowance (Sanctions) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 come into operation”; and

(iii) omit sub-paragraph (c) and the “and” preceding it.

(1)

S.R. 2008 No.280. Paragraphs (7) and (8) of regulation 63 are inserted by regulation 4(4) of S.R. 2016 No. 240.