Applicable amount in hardship cases
145.—(1) The weekly applicable amount of a person to whom an income-based jobseeker’s allowance is payable in accordance with this Part of these Regulations shall, except in a case to which paragraph (2) applies, he reduced by a sum equal to 40% of the following amount—
(a)where he is a single claimant aged less than 18 or a member of a couple or a polygamous marriage where all the members, in either case, are less than 18, the amount specified in paragraph 1(1)(a), (b) or (c), as the case may be, of Schedule 1 (applicable amounts);
(b)where he is a single claimant aged not less than 18 but less than 25 or a member of a couple or polygamous marriage where one member is aged not less than 18 but less than 25 and the other member or, in the case of a polygamous marriage each other member, is a person under 18 who is not eligible for an income-based jobseeker’s allowance under section 3(1)(f)(iii) or is not subject to a direction under section 16, the amount specified in paragraph 1(1)(d) of Schedule 1;
(c)where he is a single claimant aged not less than 25 or a member of a couple or a polygamous marriage (other than a member of a couple or polygamous marriage to whom sub-paragraph (b) does not apply) at least one of whom is aged not less than 18, the amount specified in paragraph 1(1)(e) of Schedule 1.
(2) In a case where the claimant or any other member of his family is either pregnant or is seriously ill, his weekly applicable amount shall be reduced by a sum equal to 20% of the amount applicable in his case by way of a personal allowance determined in accordance with paragraph 1 of Schedule 1.
(3) A reduction under paragraph (1) or (2) shall, if it is not a multiple of 5p, be rounded to the nearest such multiple or, if it is a multiple of 2.5p but not of 5p, to the next lower multiple of 5p.