In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

• “the Act” means the Social Security Act 1986;

• “attendance allowance” means—

  1. a

     an attendance allowance under section 35 of the Social Security Act F1;

  2. b

     an increase of disablement pension under section 61 or 63 of that Act F2;

  3. c

     a payment under regulations made in exercise of the power conferred by section 159(3)(b) of that Act;

  4. d

     an increase of an allowance which is payable in respect of constant attendance under section 5 of the Industrial Injuries and Diseases (Old Cases) Act 1975 F3;

  5. e

     a payment by virtue of article 14, 15, 16, 43 or 44 of the Personal Injuries (Civilians) Scheme 1983 F4 or any analogous payment; or

  6. f

     any payment based on need for attendance which is paid as part of a war disablement pension;

• “benefit week” has the meaning prescribed in paragraph 4 of Schedule 7 to the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 F5; F106and for the purposes of calculating any payment of income and of regulation 74(2)(a) “benefit week” shall also mean the period of 7 days ending on the day before the first day of the first benefit week following the date of claim or the last day on which income support is paid if it is in payment for less than a week;

• F158“board and lodging accommodation” means—

  1. a

     accommodation provided to a person or, if he is a member of a family, to him or any other member of his family, for a charge which is inclusive of the provision of that accommodation and at least some cooked or prepared meals which both are cooked or prepared (by a person other than the person to whom the accommodation is provided or a member of his family) and are consumed in that accommodation or associated premises; or

  2. b

     accommodation provided to a person in a hotel, guest house, lodging house or some similar establishment,

  except accommodation provided by a close relative of his or of any other member of his family, or other than on a commercial basis;

• “claimant” means a person claiming income support;

• “close relative” means a parent, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, step-parent, step-son, step-daughter, brother, sister, or the spouse of any of the preceding persons or, if that person is one of an unmarried couple, the other member of that couple;

• “concessionary payment” means a payment made under arrangements made by the Secretary of State with the consent of the Treasury which is charged either to the National Insurance Fund or to a Departmental Expenditure Vote to which payments of benefit under the Act, the Social Security Act or the Child Benefit Act 1975 F6 are charged;

• “co-ownership scheme” means a scheme under which a dwelling is let by a housing association and the tenant, or his personal representative, will, under the terms of the tenancy agreement or of the agreement under which he became a member of the association, be entitled, on his ceasing to be a member and subject to any condition stated in either agreement, to a sum calculated by reference directly or indirectly to the value of the dwelling;

• “couple” means a married or an unmarried couple;

• “course of study” means any full-time course of study or sandwich course whether or not a grant is made for attending it;

• “Crown tenant” means a person who occupies a dwelling under a tenancy or licence where the interest of the landlord belongs to Her Majesty in right of the Crown or to a government department or is held in trust for Her Majesty for the purposes of a government department, except (in the case of an interest belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown) where the interest is under the management of the Crown Estate Commissioners;

• F340“disability living allowance” means a disability living allowance under section 37ZA of the Social Security Act;

• F340“disability working allowance” means a disability working allowance under section 20 of the Act;

• “dwelling occupied as the home” means the dwelling together with any garage, garden and outbuildings, normally occupied by the claimant as his home including any premises not so occupied which it is impracticable or unreasonable to sell separately, in particular, in Scotland, any croft land on which the dwelling is situated.

• “earnings” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 35 or, as the case may be, 37;

• “employed earner” shall be construed in accordance with section 2(1)(a) of the Social Security Act;

• F107“employment” except for the purposes of section 20(3)(d) of the Act, includes any trade, business, profession, office or vocation;

• “housing association” has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(1) of the Housing Associations Act 1985 F7;

• “housing benefit expenditure” means expenditure of a kind for which housing benefit may be granted;

• “invalid carriage or other vehicle” means a vehicle propelled by petrol engine or by electric power supplied for use on the road and to be controlled by the occupant;

• F321“last day of the course” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 61 for the purposes of the definition of “period of study”;

• “liable relative” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 54;

• “lone parent” means a person who has no partner and who is responsible for, and a member of the same household as, a child or young person;

• “long tenancy” means a tenancy granted for a term of years certain exceeding twenty one years, whether or not the tenancy is, or may become, terminable before the end of that term by notice given by or to the tenant or by re-entry, forfeiture (or, in Scotland, irritancy) or otherwise and includes a lease for a term fixed by law under a grant with a covenant or obligation for perpetual renewal unless it is a lease by sub-demise from one which is not a long tenancy;

• “mobility allowance” means an allowance under section 37A of the Social Security Act F8;

• “mobility supplement” means any supplement under article 26A of the Naval, Military and Air Forces etc (Disablement and Death) Service Pensions Order 1983 F9 including such a supplement by virtue of any other scheme or order or under Article 25A of the Personal Injuries (Civilians) Scheme 1983 F10;

• “net earnings” means such earnings as are calculated in accordance with regulation 36;

• “net profit” means such profit as is calculated in accordance with regulation 38;

• “non-dependant” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 3;

• “non-dependant deduction” means a deduction that is to be made under regulation 17(e) and paragraph 11 of Schedule 3;

• “nursing home” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 19(3);

• “occupational pension” means any pension or other periodical payment under an occupational pension scheme but does not include any discretionary payment out of a fund established for relieving hardship in particular cases;

• “partner” means where a claimant—

  1. a

     is a member of a married or an unmarried couple, the other member of that couple;

  2. b

     is married polygamously to two or more members of his household, any such member;

• “payment” includes a part of a payment;

• F262“period of study” means the period beginning with the start of the course of study and ending with the last day of the course or such earlier date as the student abandons it or is dismissed from it; but any period of attendance by the student at his educational establishment in connection with the course which is outside the period of the course shall be treated as part of the period of study;

• “policy of life insurance” means any instrument by which the payment of money is assured on death (except death by accident only) or the happening of any contingency dependent on human life, or any instrument evidencing a contract which is subject to payment of premiums for a term dependent on human life;

• F141“polygamous marriage” means any marriage during the subsistence of which a party to it is married to more than one person and the ceremony of marriage took place under the law of a country which permits polygamy;

• F355“qualifying person” means a person in respect of whom payment has been made from the Fund;

• F104“registered person” means a person registered with a body mentioned in regulation 7D(1)(a)(i) to (iv) of the Child Benefit (General) Regulations 1976 for—

  1. a

     work; or

  2. b

     training under the youth training scheme;

• “relative” means close relative, grand-parent, grand-child, uncle, aunt, nephew or neice;

• “relevant enactment” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 16(8)(a);

• “remunerative work” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 5;

• F108“residential accommodation” except in F182regulation 19 and Schedule 3B has the meaning prescribed in regulation 21(3);

• “residential care home” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 19(3);

• “self-employed earner” shall be construed in accordance with section 2(1)(b) of the Social Security Act;

• “single claimant” means a claimant who neither has a partner nor is a lone parent;

• “Social Security Act” means the Social Security Act 1975 F11;

• “student” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 61;

• “supplementary benefit” means a supplementary pension or allowance under section 1 or 4 of the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976 F12;

• “terminal date” in respect of a claimant means the terminal date in his case for the purposes of regulation 7 of the Child Benefit (General) Regulations 1976 F13;

• F355“the Fund” means moneys made available from time to time by the Secretary of State for the benefit of persons eligible for payment in accordance with the provisions of a scheme established by him on 24th April 1992 or, in Scotland, on 10th April 1992;

• F101“the Independent Living Fund” means the charitable trust established out of funds provided by the Secretary of State for the purpose of providing financial assistance to those persons incapacitated by or otherwise suffering from very severe disablement who are in need of such assistance to enable them to live independently;

• F236“the Macfarlane (Special Payments) Trust” means the trust of that name, established on 29th January 1990 partly out of funds provided by the Secretary of State, for the benefit of certain persons suffering from haemophilia;

• F312“the Macfarlane (Special Payments) (No. 2) Trust" means the trust of that name, established on 3rd May 1991 partly out of funds provided by the Secretary of State, for the benefit of certain persons suffering from haemophilia and other beneficiaries;

• F66“the Macfarlane Trust” means the charitable trust, established partly out of funds provided by the Secretary of State to the Haemophilia Society, for the relief of poverty or distress among those suffering from haemophilia;

• “training allowance” means an allowance (whether by way of periodical grants or otherwise) payable—

  1. a

     out of public funds by a Government department or by or on behalf of the F283Secretary of State for EmploymentF276, Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise;

  2. b

     to a person for his maintenance or in respect of a member of his family; and

  3. c

     for the period, or part of the period, during which he is following a course of training or instruction provided by, or in pursuance of arrangements made with, that department or approved by that department in relation to him or so provided or approved by or on behalf of F284the Secretary of State for EmploymentF276, Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise,

  but it does not include an allowance paid by any Government department to or in respect of a person by reason of the fact that he is following a course of full-time educationF179, other than under arrangements made under section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973, or is training as a teacher;

• F269“water charges” means–

  1. a

     as respects England and Wales, any water and sewerage charges under Chapter IV of Part II of the Water Act 1989;

  2. b

     as respects Scotland, any water and sewerage charges under Schedule 5 to the Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987;

  in so far as such charges are in respect of the dwelling which a person occupies as his home.

• “year of assessment” has the meaning prescribed in section 526(5) of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1970 F14;

• “young person” has the meaning prescribed in regulation 14.

• F105“youth training scheme” F285or youth training means—

  1. a

     arrangements made under section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973 (functions of the Secretary of State); or

  2. b

     arrangements made by the Secretary of State for persons enlisted in Her Majesty’s forces for any special term of service specified in regulations made under section 2 of the Armed Forces Act 1966 (power of Defence Council to make regulations as to engagement of persons in regular forces),

  for purposes which include the training of persons who, at the beginning of their training, are under the age of 18.

Unless the context requires otherwise, any reference to the claimant's family or, as the case may be, to a member of his family, shall be construed for the purposes of these Regulations as if it included in relation to a polygamous marriage a reference to any partner and to any child or young person who is treated as the responsibility of the claimant or his partner, where that child or young person is a member of the claimant's household.

In these Regulations, “non-dependant” means any person, except someone F338to whom paragraph (2), (2A) or (2B) applies, who normally resides with a claimant.

Where a person is a close relative of the claimant or the claimant’s partner, paragraph (2B) shall apply to him only if the claimant’s, or the claimant’s partner’s, co-ownership, or joint liability to make payments to a landlord in respect of his occupation, of the dwelling arose either before 11th April 1988, or, if later, on or before the date upon which the claimant or the claimant’s partner first occupied the dwelling in question.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

For the purposes of this regulation a person resides with another only if they share any accommodation except a bathroom, a lavatory or a communal area F159but not if each person is separately liable to make payments in respect of his occupation of the dwelling to the landlord.

In this regulation “communal area” means any area (other than rooms) of common access (including halls and passageways) and rooms of common use in sheltered accommodation.

Paragraph (2)(b) or (c) shall not apply if, by virtue of section 20A(2) of the Social Security Act (exemption from disqualification for unemployment benefit) , the person who has ceased to be engaged in remunerative work is exempted from disqualification for receiving unemployment benefit.

In paragraphs (2) and (3) “appropriately qualified” means qualified to provide medical treatment, physiotherapy or a form of treatment which is similar to, or related to, either of those forms of treatment.

Subject to the following provisions of this regulation, for the purposes of section 20(3)(c) of the Act (conditions of entitlement to income support), remunerative work is work in which a person is engaged, or, where his hours of work fluctuate, he is engaged on average, for F353not less than 16 hours a week being work for which payment is made or which is done in expectation of payment.

A person shall be treated as engaged in remunerative work during any period for which he is absent from work referred to in paragraph (1) if the absence is either without good cause or by reason of a recognised, customary or other holiday.

A person who makes a claim and to whom or whose partner section 23 of the Act (trade disputes) applies F68or applied shall, for the period of seven days following the date on which the stoppage of work due to a trade dispute at his or his partner's place of work commenced or, if there is no stoppage, the date on which he or his partner first withdrew his labour in furtherance of a trade dispute, be treated as engaged in remunerative work.

A person who was, or was treated as being, engaged in remunerative work and in respect of that work earnings to which F184regulation 35(1)(b) to (d) and (i) (earnings of employed earners) applies are F142paid shall be treated as being engaged in remunerative work for the period for which those earnings are taken into account in accordance with Part V.

For the purposes of this regulation, in determining the number of hours in which a person is engaged or treated as engaged in remunerative work, no account shall be taken of any hours in which the person is engaged in an employment or a scheme to which paragraph (a) to paragraph (f) of regulation 6 (persons not treated as engaged in remunerative work) applies.

For the purposes of paragraphs (1) and (2), in determining the number of hours for which a person is engaged in work, that number shall include any time allowed to that person by his employer for a meal or for refreshment, but only where that person is, or expects to be, paid earnings in respect of that time.

For the purposes of section 20(3)(d) of the Act in so far as it relates to the condition of actively seeking employment, work which is treated as employment for the purposes of paragraph (1) and employment as a self-employed earner under any scheme for assisting claimants to become self-employed earners established under arrangements made pursuant to section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973 F277or section 2 of the Enterprise and New Towns (Scotland) Act 1990 shall be treated as employment.

A person, other than one to whom regulation 10(1)(h) applies (circumstances in which a person is to be treated as available for employment), to whom any paragraph of Schedule 1 (persons not required to be available for employment) applies in any week shall not be required to be available for employment in that week.

In this regulation—

• “appropriate work” means remunerative work for the purpose of section 20(3)(c) of the Act (conditions of entitlement to income support) or other work the emoluments from which are such as to disentitle the person engaged in it from a qualifying benefit;

• “commencement date” means the date on which the claimant first attended the course of education or course of training or instruction;

• “course” means a course in the pursuit of which the time spent receiving instruction or tuition, undertaking supervised study, examination or practical work or taking part in any exercise, experiment or project for which provision is made in the curriculum of the course does not, subject to paragraph (4), exceed 21 hours a week;

• “qualifying benefit” means unemployment benefit or sickness benefit under the Social Security Act F17 or, in the case of a claimant who is required to be available for employment under section 20(3)(d) of the Act (conditions of entitlement to income support) or who is not so required under paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 (persons not required to be available by reason of sickness or incapacity), income support.

In calculating the time spent in pursuit of a course for the purpose of this regulation, no account shall be taken of time occupied by meal breaks or spent on unsupervised study, whether undertaken on or off the premises of the educational establishment or place of instruction or training.

For the purposes of paragraph (1)(d), in deciding whether a claimant has no reasonable prospects of securing employment regard shall be had, in particular, to the length of the period during which he has been unemployed.

A claimant shall not be required to be a person who is actively seeking employment where, by virtue of regulation 8 (persons not required to be available for employment), he is not required to be available for employment.

A claimant, other than a person to whom regulation 10(1)(h) applies, shall not be required to be a person who is actively seeking employment during any week in which the adjudication officer is satisfied that, unless income support is paid, the claimant or a member of his family (if any) will suffer hardship.

Subject to paragraph (4), a claimant shall be treated as actively seeking employment in any week if, and only if, he takes such steps in that week as he would be required to take under regulations made under subsection (2)(aa)(i) of Section 17 of the Social Security Act in order to be regarded as actively seeking employed earner’s employment in that week for the purposes of that section.

A claimant shall be treated as actively seeking employment in respect of any week for which he is, or would have been had he made a claim for unemployment benefit, deemed to have been actively seeking employment under regulations made under section 17(1)(a)(i) of the Social Security Act.

For the purposes of this regulation, in relation to a claimant,

• “week” has the meaning prescribed in regulations made under section 17(2)(aa)(ii) of the Social Security Act which—

  1. a

     if he is entitled to unemployment benefit, applies in his case; and

  2. b

     if he is not entitled to unemployment benefit, would have applied in his case if each of the days for which he claims income support would have fallen within a period of interruption of employment had he claimed unemployment benefit under that Act in respect of those days.

A claimant to whom paragraph (1) applies shall, except where the Secretary of State decides otherwise, be registered for employment by registering with the F298Secretary of State for Employment or a local education authority.

Notwithstanding that a person is to be treated as receiving relevant education under regulation 12 (relevant education) he shall, if paragraph (2) applies to him and he satisfies the other conditions of entitlement to income support, be entitled to income support.

A person to whom this regulation applies and for the period specified in relation to him is a person within the prescribed circumstances and period mentioned in section 20(3)(a) of the Act (conditions of entitlement for persons under 18).

The period mentioned in paragraph (6A) may include any week in which regulation 7 of the Child Benefit (General) Regulations 1976 (circumstances in which a person who has ceased to receive full-time education is to continue to be treated as a child) also applies to that person.

In this regulation, any reference to a person acting in place of a registered person’s parents has the same meaning as it has in Schedule 1A by virtue of paragraph 10 of that Schedule.

Subject to paragraph (2), a person of a prescribed description for the purposes of section 20(11) of the Act as it applies to income support (definition of the family) and section 23(1) F112and (3) of the Act (trade disputes) is a person aged 16 or over but under 19 who is treated as a child for the purposes of section 2 of the Child Benefit Act 1975 (meaning of child), and in these Regulations such a person is referred to as a “young person”.

Paragraph (1) shall not apply to F246a person who is receiving advanced education within the meaning of regulation 12(2) (relevant education) or to a person who is entitled to income support or would, but for section 20(9) of the Act (provision against dual entitlement of members of family), be so entitled.

Subject to the following provisions of this regulation a person shall be treated as responsible for a child or young person for whom he has primary responsibility.

Where regulation 16(6) (circumstances in which a person is to be treated as being or not being a member of the household) applies in respect of a child or young person, that child or young person shall be treated as the responsibility of the claimant for that part of the week for which he is under that regulation treated as being a member of the claimant's household.

Except where paragraph (3) applies, for the purposes of these Regulations a child or young person shall be treated as the responsibility of only one person in any benefit week and any person other than the one treated as responsible for the child or young person under this regulation shall be treated as not so responsible.

Subject to paragraphs (2) to (5), the claimant and any partner and, where the claimant or his partner is treated as responsible under regulation 15 (circumstances in which a person is to be treated as responsible or not responsible for another) for a child or young person, that child or young person and any child of that child or young person shall be treated as members of the same household F72notwithstanding that any of them is absent from the dwelling occupied as his home.

Paragraph (1) shall not apply in respect of any person referred to therein who is not treated as occupying a dwelling as his home because he fails to satisfy the conditions in sub-paragraph (8) of paragraph 4 of Schedule 3 (housing costs) F73unless that person has been a patient within the meaning of regulation 21(3) for a period in excess of 52 weeks and is not a member of a couple or of a polygamous marriage.

A child or young person to whom any of the circumstances mentioned in sub-paragraphs (c) or (f) of paragraph (5) applies shall be treated as being a member of the claimant's household only for that part of any benefit week where that child or young person lives with the claimant.

Where a child or young person for the purposes of attending the educational establishment at which he is receiving relevant education is living with the claimant or his partner and neither one is treated as responsible for that child or young person that child or young person shall be treated as being a member of the household of the person treated as responsible for him and shall not be treated as a member of the claimant's household.

For the purposes of paragraph (2), in determining a claimant’s total benefit income in his second benefit week for the purpose of calculating the amount of any transitional addition to which he would have been entitled, no account shall be taken of any payment referred to in paragraph (1)(j) of regulation 9 of the Transitional Regulations (total benefit income) which is made in respect of that week to compensate for the loss of entitlement to income support.

The amount under paragraph (4) shall cease to be applicable to a claimant if he ceases to be entitled to income support for a period exceeding F197the permitted period determined in accordance with regulation 3A (permitted period).

For the purposes of paragraph (6), where a claimant has ceased to be entitled to income support because he or his partner is participating in arrangements for training made under section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973 F280or section 2 of the Enterprise and New Towns (Scotland) Act 1990 or attending a course at an employment rehabilitation centre established under that section F281of the 1973 Act, he shall be treated as if he had been entitled to income support for the period during which he or his partner is participating in such arrangements or attending such a course.

In this Regulation —

• “first benefit week” and “second benefit week” have the meanings given to those expressions in regulations 2(1) of the Transitional Regulations and shall also include the week which would have been the claimant’s “first benefit week” or, as the case may be, “second benefit week” had he been entitled to supplementary benefit or, as the case may be, income support in that week;

• “total benefit income” has, subject to paragraphs (3) and (5)(b), the same meaning as in regulation 9 of the Transitional Regulations;

• “Transitional Regulations” means the Income Support (Transitional) Regulations 1987.