The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017

Amendment of the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

11.—(1) The Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016(1) are amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (6).

(2) In regulation 49(5) (victims of domestic violence) for paragraph (b) of the definition of “registered social worker” substitute—

“(b) Social Care Wales;”.

(3) In regulation 50 (interpretation)—

(a) before the definition of “JSA sanctionable failure” insert—

““current sanctionable failure” means a failure of the following kinds in relation to which the Department has not yet determined whether the amount of an award of benefit is to be reduced—

(a)

a sanctionable failure;

(b)

a JSA sanctionable failure; or

(c)

a UC sanctionable failure;”;

(b) before the definition of “sanctionable failure” insert—

““relevant failure” means—

(a)

a sanctionable failure giving rise to a low-level sanction;

(b)

a UC sanctionable failure giving rise to a sanction under Article 32 of the Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 to which regulation 101 of the Universal Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 applies; or

(c)

a JSA sanctionable failure giving rise to a sanction under Article 8K of the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 to which regulation 22 of the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 applies;”.

(4) In regulation 51 (general principles for calculating reduction periods) omit paragraph (4)(a).

(5) In regulation 52 (low-level sanction) for paragraph (b) substitute—

“(b) in the circumstances described in the first column of the following table, the number of days set out in the second column.

Circumstances applicable to claimant’s case	Number of days
Where there has been no previous relevant failure by the claimant.	7 days
Where there have been one or more previous relevant failures by the claimant and the date of the most recent previous relevant failure is not within 365 days beginning with and including the date of the current sanctionable failure.	7 days
Where there have been one or more previous relevant failures by the claimant and the date of the most recent previous relevant failure is within 365 days, but not within 14 days, beginning with and including the date of the current sanctionable failure and the reduction period applicable to the most recent previous relevant failure is—
(a) 7 days	14 days
(b) 14 days (c) 28 days	28 days 28 days
Where there have been one or more previous relevant failures by the claimant and the date of the most recent previous relevant failure is within 14 days beginning with and including the date of the current sanctionable failure and the reduction period applicable to the most recent previous relevant failure is–
(a) 7 days	7 days
(b) 14 days (c) 28 days	14 days 28 days.”.

(6) In regulation 84 (deduction of tax and contributions for self-employed earners)—

(a) in paragraph (1)—

(i) after “basic rate” insert “, or in the case of a Scottish taxpayer, the Scottish basic rate,”; and

(ii) for “personal allowance to which the claimant is entitled under sections 35 and 38 to 40 of the Income Tax Act 2007 (personal allowances) as is” substitute “personal reliefs to which the claimant is entitled under Chapters 2, 3 and 3A of Part 3 of the Income Tax Act 2007 as are”;

(b) in paragraph (2) after “basic rate” insert “, or the Scottish basic rate,” and

(c) in paragraph (4) at the end add—

““Scottish basic rate” means the rate of income tax of that name calculated in accordance with section 6A of the Income Tax Act 2007;

“Scottish taxpayer” has the same meaning as in Chapter 2 of Part 4A of the Scotland Act 1998.”.

(1)

S.R. 2016 No. 219.