The Personal Community Charge (Relief) (Wales) Regulations 1992

Citation, commencement and application

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Personal Community Charge (Relief) (Wales) Regulations 1992 and shall come into force on 2nd March 1992. They apply to Wales only.

Interpretation etc.

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the Local Government Finance Act 1988;

“applicable relief”, in relation to a community area, means the amount (if any) prescribed in relation to that area in Schedule 1;

“Caldey” means Caldey Island and St. Margaret’s Island in the County of Dyfed;

“community” means a community within the meaning of the Local Government Act 1972(1);

“community area” means—

(a)

an area which is co-extensive with the area, as at 1st January 1992, of a community, and a community area identified in Schedule 1 by the name of a community in a district means the area which is co-extensive with the area of the community of that name at that date;

(b)

Caldey;

“prescribed year” means the chargeable financial year prescribed in regulation 3;

“set charge” means the amount set by the relevant charging authority as its personal community charge for its area for the prescribed year under Part II of the Act or any substitute amount so set or, where the authority has set different amounts for different areas, the amount applicable in the case of the chargepayer concerned, apart from these Regulations.

(2) References in these Regulations to the amount a person is liable to pay in respect of a personal community charge shall be construed as references to that amount before any reduction is made to that amount in respect of his entitlement to community charge benefit under the Social Security Act 1986(2).

(3) These Regulations apply whether the liability of a person to pay an amount to a charging authority in respect of a personal community charge arises under section 12 of the Act or that section read with section 13 of the Act.

Prescribed Year

3.  The chargeable financial year beginning on 1st April 1992 is prescribed as the year for which these Regulations apply.

Calculation of, and entitlement to, relief

4.—(1) Subject to regulation 5, if—

(a) a person is liable to pay an amount to a charging authority in respect of a personal community charge as it has effect for the prescribed year, and

(b) the residence by virtue of which he is subject on a day in the prescribed year to that charge is situated in a community area named in Schedule 1,

the amount he is liable to pay in respect of the charge for that day shall be found in accordance with paragraph (2).

(2) The liability of the person to pay an amount in respect of the charge for a day in the prescribed year shall be calculated as if the charging authority had set for that year a charge equal to its set charge less—

(a) the applicable relief for the community area in which is situated the residence by virtue of which he is subject on that day to the charge, or

(b) if less, such sum as is equal to its set charge.

(3) For the purposes of this regulation, if a residence consists of premises, and the premises are, or are treated as, situated wholly within a community area, the residence shall be treated as situated in that community area.

(4) The rules in Schedule 2 shall apply for the purposes of the application of paragraph (3).

5.  Regulation 4 shall not apply to reduce the liability of a person to pay an amount in respect of a personal community charge for any day if the reduction in his liability would occasion a reduction, which is greater, in the amount of community charge benefit to which he is entitled under the Social Security Act 1986 in relation to that day.

Provision of information

6.  Except as regards a decision to which regulation 7 applies, where a charging authority makes a decision relating to the application or operation of these Regulations in relation to a person, the authority shall, if requested in writing by the person so affected, provide himwith a written statement of its decision and the reasons for it; and the statement shall be dated and sent within 14 days from the date on which it is requested or as soon as is reasonably practicable thereafter.

7.  A charging authority which decides that regulation 5 applies in the case of a person shall within 14 days of the date of that decision provide the person in question with a statement of the effect of that regulation and its reasons for deciding that it applies in his case.

David Hunt

Secretary of State for Wales

6th February 1992