The Housing Benefit (General) (Amendment No. 5) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

Substitution of regulation 102 of the principal Regulations

4.—(1) For regulation 102 of the principal Regulations (method of recovery) there shall be substituted the following regulation—

“Method of recovery

102.— (1) Without prejudice to any other method of recovery, the appropriate authority may recover a recoverable overpayment from any person referred to in regulation 101 by deduction from any housing benefit to which that person is entitled (including arrears of entitlement after offsetting under regulation 97) or, where it is unable to do so, may request the Department to recover any recoverable overpayment from the benefits prescribed in regulation 105.

(2) Subject to paragraphs (4) and (5), where the Executive makes deductions permitted by paragraph (1) from the housing benefit in respect of rent it is paying to a claimant (other than deductions from arrears of entitlement), the deduction in respect of a benefit week shall be—

(a) in a case to which paragraph (3) applies, not more than the amount there specified, and

(b) in any other case, not more than 3 times 5 per cent. of the personal allowance for a single claimant aged not less than 25, that 5 per cent. being, where it is not a multiple of 5 pence, rounded to the next higher such multiple.

(3) Where the Executive makes deductions from housing benefit in respect of rent it is paying to a claimant who has, in respect of the whole or part of the recoverable overpayment—

(a) been found guilty of an offence under statute or otherwise;

(b) made an admission after caution of deception or fraud for the purpose of obtaining relevant benefit, or

(c) agreed to pay a penalty under section 109A of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992(1) and the agreement has not been withdrawn,

the amount deducted under paragraph (2) shall be not more than 4 times 5 per cent. of the personal allowance for a single claimant aged not less than 25, but where that 5 per cent is not a multiple of 10 pence, it shall be rounded to the nearest 10 pence or, if it is a multiple of 5 pence but not of 10 pence, the next higher multiple of 10 pence.

(4) Where, in the calculation of housing benefit in respect of rent, the amount of earnings or other income falling to be taken into account is reduced by reason of paragraphs 3 to 8 of Schedule 3 (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of earnings) or paragraphs 13 or 15 of Schedule 4 (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings), the deduction under paragraph (2) may be increased by not more than half the amount of the reduction.

(5) No deduction made under this regulation shall be applied so as to reduce the housing benefit in respect of a benefit week to less than 50 pence.

(6) In this regulation—

“admission after caution” means an admission after a caution has been administered in accordance with a Code issued under the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989(2);

“personal allowance for a single claimant aged not less than 25” means the amount specified in paragraph 1(1)(c) of column 2 of Schedule 2 (applicable amounts).”.

(2) The amendment made by paragraph (1) shall not apply in respect of an offence committed or an admission after caution or an agreement to pay a penalty made before these Regulations come into force.

(1)

Section 109A was inserted by Article 14 of the Social Security Administration (Fraud) (Northern Ireland) Order 1997

(2)

S.R. 1989 No. 470