The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2024

Preservation of saving for mixed-age couples migrated to universal credit

2.  In Article 4 of the Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (Commencement No. 13 and Savings and Transitional Provisions and Commencement No. 8 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2019(1) (savings) after paragraph (2) add—

“(3) Nothing in regulation 4A (restriction on claims for housing benefit, income support or a tax credit) of the Transitional Regulations prevents a claim for housing benefit by a member of a mixed-age couple referred to in paragraph (1) where—

(a) they have been issued with a migration notice;

(b) they make the claim for housing benefit within 3 months beginning with—

(i) in the case of a person who became entitled to universal credit by claiming before the final deadline, the day after their award of universal credit terminates; or

(ii) in the case of a person who did not claim universal credit, or claimed before the final deadline but was not entitled, the day after their award of housing benefit terminates; and

(c) they meet the conditions for entitlement to housing benefit on that day.

(4) Where a person mentioned in sub-paragraph (b)(i) of paragraph (3) claims—

(a) housing benefit; or

(b) state pension credit (whether or not they also claim housing benefit),

within 3 months beginning with the day mentioned in that sub-paragraph, any days on which they were entitled to universal credit are to be disregarded for the purposes of paragraph (2).

(5) In this Article “Transitional Regulations” means the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016(2) and “final deadline” and “migration notice” have the same meaning in those Regulations.”.

(1)

S.R. 2019 No. 4 (C. 1)

(2)

S.R. 2016 No. 226; Regulation 4A was inserted by regulation 4 of S.R. 2022 No. 194 and amended by regulation 8(2) of S.R. 2024 No. 54. The definitions of “final deadline” and “migration notice” were inserted by regulation 2(2) of S.R. 2019 No. 152