The Universal Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

The period of hardship payments

112.—(1) A hardship payment is to be made in respect of a period which—

(a) begins with the date on which all the conditions in regulation 111(1) are met; and

(b) unless paragraph (2) applies, ends with the day before the normal payment date for the assessment period in which those conditions are met.

(2) If the period calculated in accordance with paragraph (1) would be 7 days or less, it does not end on the date referred to in paragraph (1)(b) but instead ends on the normal payment date for the following assessment period or, if earlier, the last day on which the award is to be reduced under Article 31 or 32 of the Order (higher-level or other sanctions) or under section 5B(5A), 6(2A) or 8(2A) of the Social Security Fraud Act (Northern Ireland) 2001 (loss of benefit in case of conviction, penalty or caution for benefit offence, loss of benefit for commission of benefit offence and effect of offence on benefits for members of offender’s family).

(3) In this regulation “the normal payment date” for an assessment period is the date on which the Department would normally expect to make a regular payment of universal credit in respect of an assessment period in a case where payments of universal credit are made monthly in arrears.