The Social Security (Claims and Payments and Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery) Amendment Regulations 1989

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 (the Claims and Payments Regulations), the Social Security (Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations 1988 (the Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery Regulations) and the Social Security (Common Provisions) Regulations 1988 (the Common Provisions Regulations).

Regulation 2 of these Regulations amends the Claims and Payments Regulations. It amends regulation 3 of the Claims and Payments Regulations by extending the benefits for which no claim is required to include retirement allowance which was introduced by the Social Security Act 1988. It amends regulation 26 of the Claims and Payments Regulations so that increases and deductions in income support are treated in the same way. It amends Schedule 7 to the Claims and Payments Regulations by allowing payment in advance of public holidays where income support is paid in arrears, makes minor amendments to that Schedule to take account of the termination of arrangements for meeting the accommodation charge for board and lodging accommodation and puts hospital patients whose pattern of stay in hospital is irregular on the same footing as those patients who have regular home visits. Further, regulation 2 amends Schedule 9 to the Claims and Payments Regulations in some minor respects and extends the arrangements for payments to third parties in respect of miscellaneous accommodation costs allowing this provision to be used in the case of certain part-week payments and remitting deduction in respect of water charges where the debt is less than half the annual charge when deduction will only be made if in the opinion of the adjudicating authority it would be in the interests of the family. Further it allows payments to be made to third parties in respect of water charges where the charge is determined by means of a water meter. Other amendments of a minor nature are made.

Regulation 3 re-enacts the amendment to the Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery Regulations made by the Common Provisions Regulations extending the interpretation of a social fund payment to take account of the introduction of section 32(2A) into the Social Security Act 1986 by the Social Security Act 1988. Regulation 4 revokes defective parts of the Common Provisions Regulations which were intended to relate to the Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery Regulations and Schedule 7, paragraph 7(4) to the Claims and Payments Regulations to the extent that it relates to paragraph 7(3)(e) to take account of the termination of arrangements for meeting the accommodation charge for board and lodging accommodation.