These Regulations further amend the Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 (“the principal Regulations”), which provide for remission and payment of certain charges which would otherwise be payable under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 and for the payment by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety of travelling expenses incurred in attending a hospital.

In calculating a person’s resources and requirements under the principal Regulations in order to establish whether a person can claim entitlement to remission of Health Service charges and the payment Health Service travelling expenses, a modified version of the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 is used, as set out in Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations.

These regulations modify Schedule 1 of the principal Regulations to provide that any hardship loan or any additional loan, the eligibility for which is set out in the Student Support in Scotland Guide issued by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, and which is paid under the Education (Student Loans) (Scotland) Regulations 2007, should be disregarded in the calculation of a student’s loan income.