Health and Social Care Act 2001

51 Preserved rights: disclosure of information E+W+S

(1) For the purposes of this section a “claimant” is—

(a) (in relation to any time before the appointed day) a person who is ordinarily resident in relevant premises and has a preserved right by virtue of which enhanced payments are being made to or in respect of him by way of income support or jobseeker’s allowance, or

(b) (in relation to any later time) a person who fell within paragraph (a) immediately before that day.

(2) Any information—

(a) held by, or by a person providing services to, the Secretary of State about a claimant, and

(b) relating to income support or jobseeker’s allowance,

may be supplied, for qualifying purposes, to the local authority in whose area the relevant premises referred to in subsection (1) are situated or to any person providing services to, or authorised to exercise functions of, the authority.

(3) Where information relating to a claimant is supplied to any authority or person (“the recipient”) in accordance with subsection (2), the information may be supplied by the recipient, for qualifying purposes—

(a) to any local authority appearing to the recipient to be providing the claimant with community care services with respect to his accommodation; or

(b) to any person providing services to, or authorised to exercise functions of, any such local authority.

(4) In subsections (2) and (3) “qualifying purposes”, in relation to information relating to a claimant, means—

(a) purposes connected with the performance of functions under section 50 in relation to the claimant, or

(b) other purposes connected with the termination of his preserved right in consequence of section 52(1), or

(c) (in subsection (2)) any further supply of the information under subsection (3).

(5) Where information relating to a particular person is supplied to any authority or person in accordance with subsection (2) or (3), section 123 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (c. 5) (unauthorised disclosure of information relating to particular persons) shall apply in relation to the disclosure of the information by—

(a) the recipient of the information, or

(b) any officer or employee of the recipient,

without lawful authority (within the meaning of that section) as it applies to any disclosure of information to which subsection (1) of that section applies.

(6) In this section—

• “the appointed day”, “ordinarily resident” and “relevant premises” have the same meaning as they have for the purposes of section 50;

• “preserved right” means a preserved right within the meaning of the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1967).