The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions and Commencement No. 8 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019

Interpretation N.I.

2.—(1) In this Order—

[F1 “the 1992 Act” means the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992;]

“the 2002 Act” means the State Pension Credit Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 M1 ;

“the appointed day” means the day referred to in Article 3;

[F2 “assessment period”, in relation to universal credit entitlement, has the same meaning as in regulation 22 of the Universal Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016;]

F3 ...

“the Housing Benefit SPC Regulations” means the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 M2 ;

“the No. 8 Order” means the Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 8 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions) Order 2017 M3 ;

“polygamous marriage” has the same meaning as in regulation 3(4) of the Universal Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 M4 ;

“the qualifying age for state pension credit” has the same meaning as in the 2002 Act M5 ;

“secondary legislation” means an instrument made under—

(a)

an Act of Parliament, including an Order in Council made under the Northern Ireland (Welfare Reform) Act 2015 M6 ;

(b)

Northern Ireland legislation within the meaning of section 24 of the Interpretation Act 1978 M7 ;

“state pension credit” has the same meaning as in the 2002 Act M8 .

[F4 (1A) In this Order, “couple” has the meanings given by the 2002 Act, save—

(a) in reference to entitlement to housing benefit, where it has the meanings given by Part VII of the 1992 Act; and

[F5 (b) in Article 7(3), in relation to references to persons being treated as a couple in accordance with Article 7(2)(a)(ii), where it has the meaning referred to in Article 7(2)(a)(ii)]

(2) In this Order—

(a) “mixed-age couple” means a couple, one member of which has attained the qualifying age for state pension credit and the other of which has not; and

(b) the definition in sub-paragraph (a) includes a polygamous marriage where at least one party to the marriage has attained the qualifying age for state pension credit and at least one has not.

(3) Save as stated to the contrary in Article 6(2) F6 ..., all references in this Order to claims or entitlement to housing benefit are to claims or entitlement under the Housing Benefit SPC Regulations.

(4) In this Order—

(a) a person is entitled to state pension credit or housing benefit on any day where the person has made a claim for that benefit and the conditions of entitlement are met in relation to that person, regardless of whether, respectively, entitlement begins on a later day under—

(i) regulation 16A (date of entitlement under an award of state pension credit for the purpose of payability and effective date of change of rate) M9 of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987, or

(ii) regulation 55 (date on which entitlement is to commence) of the Housing Benefit SPC Regulations, and

(b) [F7 save in Article 7(3)(a),] a reference to claiming or entitlement to state pension credit or housing benefit as part of a [F8 mixed-age] couple is a reference to [F9 a person claiming or] being so entitled, on the basis that [F10 the person] is a member of a couple or F11 ... a polygamous marriage.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in art. 2(1) inserted (15.5.2019) by The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019 (S.R. 2019/107), art. 2(2)(a)(i)

F2 Words in art. 2(1) inserted (25.11.2020) by The Universal Credit (Persons who have attained state pension credit qualifying age) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (S.R. 2020/119), regs. 1(2), 7(2)(a)

F3 Words in art. 2(1) omitted (15.5.2019) by virtue of The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019 (S.R. 2019/107), art. 2(2)(a)(ii)

F4 Art. 2(1A) inserted (15.5.2019) by The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019 (S.R. 2019/107), art. 2(2)(b)

F5 Art. 2(1A)(b) substituted (25.11.2020) by The Universal Credit (Persons who have attained state pension credit qualifying age) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (S.R. 2020/119), regs. 1(2), 7(2)(b)

F6 Words in art. 2(3) omitted (1.8.2022) by virtue of The Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/194), regs. 1(1), 13, Sch. para. 3(2)

F7 Words in art. 2(4)(b) inserted (15.5.2019) by The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019 (S.R. 2019/107), art. 2(2)(d)(i)

F8 Word in art. 2(4)(b) inserted (15.5.2019) by The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019 (S.R. 2019/107), art. 2(2)(d)(ii)

F9 Words in art. 2(4)(b) substituted (15.5.2019) by The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019 (S.R. 2019/107), art. 2(2)(d)(iii)

F10 Words in art. 2(4)(b) substituted (15.5.2019) by The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019 (S.R. 2019/107), art. 2(2)(d)(iv)

F11 Words in art. 2(4)(b) omitted (15.5.2019) by virtue of The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019 (S.R. 2019/107), art. 2(2)(d)(v)

Marginal Citations

M1 2002 c. 14 (N.I.).

M2 S.R. 2006 No. 406.

M3 S.R. 2017 No. 190 (C. 11).

M4 S.R. 2016 No. 216.

M5 See section 1(2)(b) and (6).

M6 2015 c. 34.

M7 1978 c. 30.

M8 See section 1.

M9 S.R. 1987 No. 465. Regulation 16A was inserted by S.R. 2003 No. 191; there are amendments none of which are relevant to this Order.