The Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006

22.—(1) Subject to sub-paragraph (3), any payment of £5,000 or more which has been made to rectify, or to compensate for, an official error relating to a relevant benefit and has been received by the claimant in full on or after the day on which he became entitled to benefit under these Regulations or the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006.

(2) Subject to sub-paragraph (3), the total amount of any payments disregarded under—

(a) paragraph 7(2) of Schedule 10 to the Income Support Regulations(1);

(b) paragraph 12(2) of Schedule 8 to the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations(2);

(c) paragraph 9(2) of Schedule 5 to the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006;

(d) paragraph 20A of Schedule 5 to the State Pension Credit Regulations 2002(3),

where the award in respect of which the payments last fell to be disregarded under those Regulations either terminated immediately before the relevant date or is still in existence at that date.

(3) Any disregard which applies under sub-paragraph (1) or (2) shall have effect until the award comes to an end.

(4) In this paragraph—

• “the award”, except in sub-paragraph (2), means—

  (a)

  the award of benefit under these Regulations during which the relevant sum or, where it is paid in more than one instalment, the first instalment of that sum is received; and

  (b)

  where that award is followed by one or more further awards which, or each of which, begins immediately after the previous award ends, such further awards until the end of the last such award, provided that, for such further awards, the claimant—

  (i)

  is the person who received the relevant sum;

  (ii)

  is the partner of that person; or

  (iii)

  was the partner of that person at the date of his death;

• “official error”—

  (a)

  where the error relates to housing benefit or council tax benefit, has the meaning given by regulation 1(2) of the Decisions and Appeals Regulations(4);

  (b)

  where the error relates to any other relevant benefit, has the meaning given by regulation 1(3) of the Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 1999(5);

• “the relevant date” means—

  (a)

  in the case of an existing award of benefit under these Regulations or the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, 6th October 2003; and

  (b)

  in any other case, the date on which the claim for benefit under these Regulations or the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 was made;

• “relevant benefit” means any benefit specified in paragraph 21(2); and

• “the relevant sum” means the payment referred to in sub-paragraph (1) or the total amount referred to in sub-paragraph (2).

(1)

Paragraph 7(2) was inserted by S.I. 2002/2380.

(2)

Paragraph 12(2) was inserted by S.I. 2002/2380.

(3)

S.I. 2002/1792. Paragraph 20A was inserted by S.I. 2002/3197, and substituted by S.I. 2003/2274.

(4)

S.I. 2001/1002. Regulation 1(2) was amended by S.I. 2002/1379 and 2002/1703.

(5)

S.I. 1999/991. Regulation 1(3) was amended by S.I. 2002/1379.