The Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

Certain claimants to be treated as having, or not having, limited capability for work-related activity

31.—(1) A claimant is to be treated as having limited capability for work-related activity if—

(a) the claimant is terminally ill;

(b) the claimant is—

(i) receiving treatment for cancer by way of chemotherapy or radiotherapy,

(ii) likely to receive such treatment within 6 months after the date of the determination of capability for work-related activity, or

(iii) recovering from such treatment,

and the Department is satisfied that the claimant should be treated as having limited capability for work-related activity;

(c) in the case of a woman, she is pregnant and there is a serious risk of damage to her health or to the health of her unborn child if she does not refrain from work-related activity; or

(d) the claimant is entitled to universal credit and it has previously been determined that the claimant has limited capability for work and work-related activity on the basis of an assessment under Part 5 of the Universal Credit Regulations.

(2) A claimant who does not have limited capability for work-related activity as determined in accordance with regulation 30(1) is to be treated as having limited capability for work-related activity if—

(a) the claimant suffers from some specific disease or bodily or mental disablement; and

(b) by reason of such disease or disablement, there would be a substantial risk to the mental or physical health of any person if the claimant were found not to have limited capability for work-related activity.

(3) A claimant is to be treated as not having limited capability for work-related activity where—

(a) it has previously been determined, within the 6 months preceding the date of claim for employment and support allowance, on the basis of an assessment under Part 5 of the Universal Credit Regulations, that the claimant does not have limited capability for work and work-related activity; and

(b) it appears to the Department that—

(i) the determination was not based on ignorance of, or mistake as to, a material fact, and

(ii) there has been no relevant change of circumstances in relation to the claimant’s physical or mental condition.