The Housing Benefit (General) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Amendment of regulation 102 of the Housing Benefit Regulations

5.—(1) Regulation 102 of the Housing Benefit Regulations(1) (method of recovery) shall be amended in accordance with the paragraphs (2) to (4).

(2) In paragraph (1) for “the appropriate authority” there shall be substituted “a relevant authority”.

(3) After paragraph (1) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(1A) Where—

(a) a claimant has moved into a dwelling which he occupies as his home;

(b) a recoverable overpayment of housing benefit is thereafter made direct to him in connection with the dwelling he occupied as his home immediately preceding the date he moved to that dwelling, and

(c) the relevant authority which made the recoverable overpayment is paying housing benefit to that claimant in respect of that new dwelling,

the relevant authority may at its discretion deduct from the housing benefit it is paying to the claimant in respect of a benefit week an amount equal to the claimant’s weekly entitlement to housing benefit at his new dwelling, and may do so for the number of benefit weeks equal to the number of weeks during which the claimant was over paid housing benefit.”.

(4) In paragraph (2) after “paragraphs” there shall be inserted “(1A),”.

(5) In paragraph (5) after “regulation” there shall be inserted “, except as made under paragraph (1A),”.

(1)

Regulation 102 was substituted by regulation 4(1) of S.R. 2000 No.265