The Social Security (Notification of Change of Circumstances) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001

Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland

2001 No. 420

HOUSING; RATES; SOCIAL SECURITY

The Social Security (Notification of Change of Circumstances) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001

Made

3rd December 2001

Coming into operation

7th January 2002

The Department for Social Development, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 105A(1A), (1B), (1D) and (1E), 106(1A) to (1D) and 165(1), (3) and (4) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992(1) and now vested in it(2), and of all other powers enabling it in that behalf, by this statutory rule which contains only regulations made consequential upon section 15 of the Social Security Fraud Act (Northern Ireland) 2001(3) and with the consent of the Department of Finance and Personnel(4) in so far as regulation 4 is concerned, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Social Security (Notification of Change of Circumstances) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 and shall come into operation on 7th January 2002.

(2) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(5) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.

Notification for purposes of sections 105A and 106 of the Social Security Administration Act

2.  Regulations 3 to 5 prescribe the person to whom, and manner in which, a change of circumstances must be notified for the purposes of sections 105A(1A) to (1G) and 106(1A) to (1F) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (offences relating to failure to notify a change of circumstances).

Change affecting jobseeker’s allowance

3.—(1) Where the benefit affected by the change of circumstances is a jobseeker’s allowance, notice must be given or sent to the Department in writing (except where it determines in any particular case that it will accept a notice other than in writing) at the office that the claimant is required to attend in accordance with a notification given to him under regulation 23 of the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996(6) (attendance).

(2) In this regulation “Department” includes a person designated as an employment officer by an order made by the Department under Article 10(3) of the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995(7) (attendance, information and evidence).

Change affecting housing benefit

4.—(1) Where the benefit affected by the change of circumstances is housing benefit, notice must be given or sent in writing to the relevant authority at—

(a) the designated office; or

(b) in a case where notification at another office is permitted under regulation 75 of the Housing Benefit Regulations(8) (duty to notify changes of circumstances), that other office.

(2) In this regulation—

(a) “designated office” and “relevant authority” have the same meaning as in regulation 2(1) of the Housing Benefit Regulations(9) (interpretation); and

(b) “the Housing Benefit Regulations” means the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987(10).

Change affecting other benefit, payment or advantage

5.—(1) Where the benefit or other payment or advantage affected by the change of circumstances is not jobseeker’s allowance or housing benefit, notice must be given or sent to the Department in writing (except where it determines in any particular case that it will accept a notice other than in writing) at the appropriate office.

(2) In this regulation “the appropriate office” has the same meaning as in regulation 2(1) of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987(11) (interpretation).

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department for Social Development on 3rd December 2001.

L.S.

John O'Neill

Senior Officer of the

Department for Social Development

The Department of Finance and Personnel hereby consents to regulation 4 of the foregoing Regulations.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Finance and Personnel on 3rd December 2001.

L.S.

William Pauley

Senior Officer of the

Department of Finance and Personnel

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

Section 15 of the Social Security Fraud Act (Northern Ireland) 2001 (“the Fraud Act”) amends sections 105A and 106 of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (“the Administration Act”) by substituting new offences relating to failure to notify a change of circumstances affecting entitlement to any benefit, payment or other advantage. A new set of summary or indictable offences is set out in section 105A(1A) to (1G) of the Administration Act and a new set of summary only offences is set out in section 106(1A) to (1F) of that Act.

For each offence there must be a failure to give prompt notification “in the prescribed manner to the prescribed person”. These matters are prescribed in relation to jobseeker’s allowance by regulation 3, in relation to housing benefit by regulation 4, and in relation to any other benefit, payment or advantage by regulation 5.

The requirements are prescribed only for the purposes of the above-mentioned criminal offences. They mirror existing requirements prescribed for the purposes of claims and payments under section 5 of the Administration Act.

These Regulations are made in consequence of section 15 of the Fraud Act which inserted subsections (1A) to (1G) into section 105A of the Administration Act and substituted section 106(1A) to (1F) of that Act. Section 15 of the Fraud Act was brought into operation for the purpose only of authorising the making of regulations on 3rd December 2001 and for all other purposes on 7th January 2002, by virtue of the Social Security Fraud (2001 Act) (Commencement No. 1) Order (Northern Ireland) 2001 (S.R. 2001 No. 416 (C. 20)). As these Regulations are made before the end of the period of 6 months from the commencement of the said section, they are accordingly exempt, by virtue of section 150(5)(b) of the Administration Act, from reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.

These Regulations do not impose any charge on business.

(1)

1992 c. 8; section 105A was inserted by Article 12 of the Social Security Administration (Fraud) (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 (S.I. 1997/1182 (N.I. 11)); subsections (1A) to (1G) of section 105A are inserted by, and subsections (1A) to (1F) of section 106 are substituted by, section 15 of the Social Security Fraud Act (Northern Ireland) 2001 (c. 17); section 165(1) was amended by paragraph 49(2) of Schedule 3 to the Social Security Contributions (Transfer of Functions, etc.) (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/671)

(2)

See Article 8(b) of S.R. 1999 No. 481

(3)

2001 c. 17 (N.I.)

(4)

See section 165(8) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, see also Article 6(b) of, and Part II of Schedule 4 to, S.R. 1999 No. 481

(5)

1954 c. 33 (N.I.)

(6)

S.R. 1996 No. 198; regulation 23 was substituted by regulation 2(2) of S.R. 2000 No. 255

(7)

S.I. 1995/2705 (N.I. 15); paragraph (3) was added by paragraph 27(3)(b) of Schedule 8 to the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/3147 (N.I. 11))

(8)

Regulation 75 was amended by regulation 14 of S.R. 1996 No. 334, regulation 8(3) of S.R. 2001 No. 175 and regulation 4(h) of S.R. 2001 No. 215

(9)

The definition of “designated office” was amended by, and the definition of “relevant authority” was inserted respectively by, regulation 3(1) of, and Schedule 1 to, and regulation 2(a) of S.R. 2001 No. 215

(10)

S.R. 1987 No. 461

(11)

S.R. 1987 No. 465; the definition of “appropriate office” was amended by paragraph 2(2) of Schedule 2 to S.R. 2001 No. 175