7.—(1) Information which relates to claimants for housing benefit or to the amounts paid and which is held by the Housing Executive or a registered housing association, or a person providing services to the body in question in connection with the provision of those services, may be supplied to the Department for use by it in connection with—
(a)determining entitlement to a welfare supplementary payment and the amount to which a person is entitled, or
(b)the administration of welfare supplementary payments.
(2) The reference in paragraph (1) to information relating to claimants for housing benefit includes a reference to information relating to whether a claimant has the status commonly known as “Management Transfer status” as referred to in regulation 2(3).
(3) The reference in paragraph (1) to information relating to the amounts of housing benefit paid includes a reference to information relating to investigations of whether an overpayment has been made, recovery of overpayments or appeals against decisions relating to overpayments.
(4) Information which relates to entitlement to a welfare supplementary payment, to the amount to which a person is entitled or to the administration of welfare supplementary payments and which is held by the Department, or a person providing services to it in connection with the provision of those services, may be supplied—
(a)to the Housing Executive or a registered housing association for use by it in connection with the management of tenants’ accounts;
(b)to a body which appears to the Department to represent housing associations in Northern Ireland for the supply by it to the Housing Executive or a registered housing association for the use referred to in sub-paragraph (a).