The Social Security (Working Neighbourhoods) Regulations 2004

Failure to take part in an interview

12.—(1) Where a relevant decision has been made in accordance with regulation 11(4), a relevant person or, where the relevant person is a partner, the benefit recipient shall, subject to paragraph (13), suffer the consequences set out below.

(2) Those consequences are—

(a) where the requirement to take part in an interview arose under regulation 3 in connection with a claim for income support or incapacity benefit, that the relevant person to whom the claim relates is, subject to sub-paragraph (b), to be regarded as not having made that claim for that benefit;

(b) where the requirement to take part in an interview which arose under regulation 3 in connection with a claim for income support or incapacity benefit was deferred and that benefit became payable by virtue of regulation 7(3), that the relevant person’s entitlement to that benefit shall terminate from the first day of the next benefit week following the date on which the relevant decision was made;

(c) where the relevant person or, where the relevant person is a partner, the benefit recipient has an award of a specified benefit and the requirement to take part in an interview arose under regulation 4, the specified benefit payable in respect of which the requirement to take part in an interview arose shall be reduced.

(3) The reduction made to benefit in accordance with paragraph (2)(c) shall (subject to paragraphs (4) and (5)) be by a sum equal to 20 per cent. of the amount applicable on the date the reduction commences in respect of a single claimant for income support aged not less than 25 and shall take effect either as from the first day of the next benefit week following the day on which the relevant decision was made, or, if the relevant person is a partner and if that date arises five days or less after the day on which the relevant decision was made, as from the first day of the second benefit week following the date of the relevant decision.

(4) Benefit reduced in accordance with paragraph (2)(c) shall not be reduced below ten pence per week.

(5) Where two or more specified benefits are in payment to a relevant person, or, where the relevant person is a partner, to the benefit recipient, a reduction made in accordance with this regulation shall be applied, except in a case to which paragraph (6) applies, to the specified benefits in the following order of priority—

(a) an income-based jobseeker’s allowance;

(b) income support;

(c) incapacity benefit;

(d) severe disablement allowance.

(6) Where the amount of the reduction is greater than some (but not all) of the specified benefits listed in paragraph (5), the reduction shall be made against the first benefit in that list which is the same as, or greater than, the amount of the reduction.

(7) For the purpose of determining whether a specified benefit is the same as, or greater than, the amount of the reduction for the purposes of paragraph (6), ten pence shall be added to the amount of the reduction.

(8) In a case where the whole of the reduction cannot be applied against any one specified benefit because the amount of no one benefit is the same as, or greater than, the amount of the reduction, the reduction shall be applied against the first benefit in payment in the list of priorities at paragraph (5) and so on against each benefit in turn until the whole of the reduction is exhausted or, if this is not possible, the whole of the specified benefits are exhausted, subject in each case to ten pence remaining in payment.

(9) Where the rate of any specified benefit payable to a relevant person, or, where a relevant person is a partner, to a benefit recipient changes, the rules set out above for a reduction in the benefit payable shall be applied to the new rates, and any adjustments to the benefits against which the reductions are made shall take effect from the beginning of the first benefit week to commence for that relevant person or benefit recipient following the change.

(10) For the avoidance of doubt, paragraph (2)(c) shall apply each time a relevant decision is made in accordance with regulation 11(4) arising from a requirement to take part in an interview under regulation 4 in respect of a relevant person.

(11) For the avoidance of doubt, a relevant person who is regarded as not having made a claim for income support or incapacity benefit because he failed to take part in an interview as a result of a requirement arising under regulation 3 shall be required to make a new claim in order to establish entitlement to that benefit.

(12) For the purposes of determining the amount of any benefit payable, a relevant person, or where a relevant person is a partner, a benefit recipient shall be treated as receiving the amount of any specified benefit which would have been payable but for a reduction made in accordance with this regulation.

(13) Benefit shall not be reduced in accordance with this regulation where a relevant person or, where the relevant person is a partner, the relevant person or the benefit recipient, brings new facts to the notice of the Secretary of State within one month of the date on which the decision that the relevant person failed without good cause to take part in an interview was notified to him and—

(a) those facts could not reasonably have been brought to the Secretary of State’s notice within five working days of the day on which the interview was to take place; and

(b) those facts show that the relevant person had good cause for his failure to take part in the interview.