(1)Descriptions of persons may be prescribed for the purposes of section 182 or 183 by reference to any criterion and, in particular, by reference to any of the following criteria—
(a)their age,
(b)the fact that a prescribed person or a prescribed body accepts them as suffering from a prescribed medical condition,
(c)the fact that a prescribed person or a prescribed body accepts that a prescribed medical condition from which they suffer arose in prescribed circumstances,
(d)their receipt of benefit in money or in kind under any enactment or their entitlement to receive any such benefit,
(e)the receipt of any such benefit by other persons satisfying prescribed conditions or the entitlement of other persons satisfying prescribed conditions to receive such benefits, and
(f)the relationship, as calculated in accordance with the regulations by a prescribed person, between their resources and their requirements.
(2)Regulations under section 182 or 183 may direct how a person's resources and requirements must be calculated and may, in particular, direct that they must be calculated—
(a)by a method set out in the regulations,
(b)by a method described by reference to a method of calculating or estimating income or capital specified in an enactment other than this section or in an instrument made under an Act of Parliament or by reference to such a method but subject to prescribed modifications,
(c)by reference to an amount applicable for the purposes of a payment under an Act of Parliament or an instrument made under an Act of Parliament, or
(d)by reference to the person's being or having been entitled to payment under an Act of Parliament or an instrument made under an Act of Parliament.
(3)Regulations under section 182 or 183 which refer to an Act of Parliament or an instrument made under an Act of Parliament may direct that the reference must be construed as a reference to that Act or instrument—
(a)as it has effect at the time when the regulations are made, or
(b)both as it has effect at that time and as amended subsequently.