The Social Security (Work-focused Interviews) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

Failure to take part in an interview

11.—(1) A person in respect of whom a relevant decision has been made in accordance with regulation 10(4) shall, subject to paragraph (11), suffer the consequences set out below.

(2) Those consequences are –

(a) where the interview arose in connection with a claim for a specified benefit, that the person to whom the claim relates is to be regarded as not having made a claim for a specified benefit;

(b) where an interview which arose in connection with a claim for a specified benefit was deferred and benefit became payable by virtue of regulation 6(3), that the person’s entitlement to that benefit shall terminate as from the first day of the next benefit week following the date on which the relevant decision was made;

(c) where the claimant has an award of benefit and the requirement for the interview arose under regulation 3, the claimant’s benefit shall be reduced as from the first day of the next benefit week following the day the relevant decision was made, by a sum equal (but subject to paragraphs (3) and (4)) 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.

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

(4) Where two or more specified benefits are in payment to a claimant, a reduction made in accordance with this regulation shall be applied, except in a case to which paragraph (5) applies, to the specified benefits in the following order of priority –

(a) income support;

(b) incapacity benefit;

(c) any bereavement benefit;

(d) carer’s allowance;

(e) severe disablement allowance.

(5) Where the amount of the reduction is greater than some (but not all) of the specified benefits listed in paragraph (4), 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.

(6) 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 (5), 10 pence shall be added to the amount of the reduction.

(7) In a case where the whole of the reduction cannot be applied against any one specified benefit because 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 (4) 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 10 pence remaining in payment.

(8) Where the rate of any specified benefit payable to a claimant 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 claimant following the change.

(9) Where a claimant whose benefit has been reduced in accordance with this regulation subsequently takes part in an interview, the reduction shall cease to have effect on the first day of the benefit week in which the requirement to take part in an interview was met.

(10) For the avoidance of doubt, a person who is regarded as not having made a claim for any benefit because he failed to take part in an interview shall be required to make a new claim in order to establish entitlement to any specified benefit.

(11) For the purposes of determining the amount of any benefit payable, a claimant 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.

(12) The consequences set out in this regulation shall not apply in the case of a person who brings new facts to the notice of an officer within 1 month of the date on which the decision was notified and –

(a) those facts could not reasonably have been brought to an officer’s notice within 5 working days of the day on which the interview was to take place, and

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

(13) In paragraphs (2) and (12), the “decision” means the decision that the person failed without good cause to take part in an interview.