The Social Security (Residential Care Homes, Nursing Homes and Independent Hospitals) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

5.  In Schedule 2 (housing costs)—

(a) in paragraph 4 (circumstances in which a person is to be treated as occupying a dwelling as his home)—

(i) in sub-paragraph (7), in head (c)(iii) for “or nursing home” there shall be substituted “, nursing home or an independent hospital”;

(ii) for sub-paragraph (8) there shall be substituted the following sub-paragraph—

“(8) This sub-paragraph applies to a person who enters a residential care home, nursing home or an independent hospital—

(a) for the purpose of ascertaining whether that residential care home, nursing home or independent hospital suits his needs, and

(b) with the intention of returning to the dwelling which he normally occupies as his home should, in the event that, the residential care home, nursing home or independent hospital prove not to suit his needs,

and while in the residential care home, nursing home or independent hospital, the part of the dwelling which he normally occupies as his home is not let, or as the case may be, sub-let to another person.”.

(iii) in sub-paragraph (9) for “accommodation” in both places where it occurs, there shall be substituted “residential care home, nursing home or independent hospital”;

(iv) in sub-paragraph (11), in head (c)(iii), (c)(vii) and (c)(ix) for “or nursing home” there shall be substituted “, nursing home or an independent hospital”;

(b) in paragraph 5(1), in head (b) for “or nursing home” there shall be substituted “, nursing home or an independent hospital”.