The Social Security and Universal Credit (Migration of Tax Credit Claimants and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024

Explanatory Note

(This is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations make amendments and modifications to various social security regulations.

Regulations 2, 3, 4 and 5 make amendments to the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 (S.R. 1987 No. 459), the Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 198), the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (S.R. 2006 No. 405) and the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 (S.R. 2008 No. 280) to ensure that any students residing in Northern Ireland who are in receipt of a loan for specific purposes issued under specified legislation do not have this loan taken into account as student income when calculating entitlement to benefits.

Regulation 6 makes amendments to regulation 5 of the Social Security (Payments on Account of Benefit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 (S.R. 2016 No. 223) (“the Payments on Account Regulations”), which contains provisions setting out the circumstances in which the Department may make a payment on account of benefit to a person, where their claim for benefit has been made but not yet determined, or where no claim is required but an award has not yet been made. The amendments add an additional requirement to the cumulative circumstances in which the Department may make a payment on account of benefit (also known as an “advance”) where such a payment is on account of universal credit. The additional requirement is that the person has been allocated with a national insurance number.

Regulation 7 makes amendments to the Universal Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 (S.R. 2016 No. 216). The amendment to regulation 2 clarifies the legislation by ensuring that children placed for adoption are not considered to be ‘looked after by the authority’ and are part of the claimants benefit unit so they can receive the universal credit child element for these children. The amendment to regulation 68 removes a young student’s bursary payable in Scotland from the definition of a student loan. The amendment to regulation 71 enables student income to be averaged across a year, or a period of study if shorter, even in circumstances where the claimant was not entitled to universal credit for part of that year or period of study, when calculating the amount of student income that is to be attributed to a claimant for a particular assessment period.

Regulation 8 makes amendments to the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 (S.R. 2016 No. 226) (‘the 2016 Regulations’). Regulation 8(2) revokes paragraphs (6) and (7) of regulation 4A, which allow claimants to claim and renew tax credits, from 6th April 2025, and amends paragraph (1) and (8) accordingly. Regulation 8(3) amends regulation 11(1) to allow tax credit awards to be in year finalised where a claimant who has been invited to claim universal credit has not done so by their deadline date. Regulation 8(4) amends paragraph 16 of Schedule 1 following reform of the “basis period” for tax purposes in relation to trades, professions and vocations as part of the Finance Act 2022 (c.3).

These Regulations make in relation to Northern Ireland only provision corresponding to provision contained in Regulations made by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in relation to Great Britain and accordingly, by virtue of section 149(3) of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 5, to the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, are not subject to the requirement of section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.