18.—(1) The Social Security (Invalid Care Allowance) Regulations 1976 shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.
(2) In regulation 9 (conditions relating to residence and presence in Great Britain) for paragraph (3) there shall be substituted the following paragraph:—
“(3) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b) and (c) notwithstanding that on any day a person is absent from Great Britain he shall be treated as though he were present in Great Britain if his absence is by reason only of the fact that on that day—
(a)he is abroad in his capacity as—
(i)a serving member of the forces within the meaning of the definition of `serving member of the forces' in regulation 1(2) of the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 1975, as amended(1), or
(ii)an airman or mariner within the meaning of regulation 72 and regulation 77 respectively of those Regulations; or
(b)he is in prescribed employment in connection with continental shelf operations within the meaning of regulation 76 of those Regulations; or
(c)he is living with a person mentioned in sub-paragraph (a)(i) and is the spouse, son, daughter, father, father-in-law, mother or mother-in-law of that person.”.
(3) For regulation 12 (increase of invalid care allowance for child dependants) there shall be substituted the following regulation:—
12.—(1) For the purposes of increases of invalid care allowance for child dependants under section 49 of the Act, the prescribed circumstances in which a beneficiary is entitled to such an increase for any period shall be as set out in the following paragraphs of this regulation.
(2) The weekly rate of an invalid care allowance for any period for which the beneficiary is entitled, or is treated as entitled, to child benefit in respect of a child or children shall be increased in respect of that child, or each respectively of those children, by the appropriate amount specified in relation to that allowance in column (2) of Part IV of Schedule 4 to the Act.
(3) Where a person is entitled to receive payment of an amount by way of an increase of an invalid care allowance under paragraph (2) of this regulation, that increase shall not be payable unless one of the following conditions is satisfied—
(a)that the beneficiary would be treated for the purposes of the Child Benefit Act 1975 as having the child living with him; or
(b)that the requisite contributions are being made to the cost of providing for the child.
(4) The condition specified in paragraph (3)(b) above is to be treated as satisfied if, but only if—
(a)such contributions are being made at a weekly rate not less than the amount referred to in paragraph (2) of this regulation—
(i)by the beneficiary, or
(ii)where the beneficiary is one of two spouses residing together, by them together; and
(b)the contributions are over and above those required for the purpose of satisfying subsection (1)(b) of section 3 of the Child Benefit Act 1975.
(5) Any sum or sums paid by a person by way of contribution towards the cost of providing for two or more children being children in respect of whom, in the period for which the sum in question is paid by the person, he is entitled to child benefit or is treated as so entitled, shall be treated as such contributions, of such respective amounts equal in the aggregate to the said sum or sums, in respect of those children so as to secure as large a payment as possible by way of invalid care allowance in respect of them.”.
(4) In regulation 13 (increase of invalid care allowance for adult dependants), in paragraph (2)—
(a)for “column (4)” there shall be substituted “column (3)”;
(b)for the words “of the beneficiary's family within the meaning of regulation 12 of these regulations” there shall be substituted the words “in respect of whom the beneficiary is entitled to child benefit”;
(c)for the words “a child or children of his family” there shall be substituted the words “a child or children in respect of whom the beneficiary is entitled to child benefit”.
The relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1975/1855; 1976/1, 507 (1975 III, p. 6983; 1976 I, pp. 1; 1480).