The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2000

Statutory Instruments

2000 No. 729

SOCIAL SECURITY

The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2000

Made

13th March 2000

Laid before Parliament

13th March 2000

Coming into force

3rd April 2000

The Secretary of State for Social Security, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by sections 138(2) and (4) and 175(1), (3) and (4) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992(1) and sections 5(1)(a) and (i), and 189(1) and (4) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992(2) and section 16(1) and section 79(1) and (4) of, and paragraph 3 of Schedule 5 to, the Social Security Act 1998(3) and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, after agreement by the Social Security Advisory Committee that proposals in respect of these Regulations should not be referred to it(4), hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2000 and shall come into force on 3rd April 2000.

(2) In these Regulations—

• “free in-patient treatment” shall be construed in accordance with regulation 2(2) of the Social Security (Hospital In-Patients) Regulations 1975(5);

• “Income Support Regulations” means the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987(6);

• “qualifying week” means in respect of any year the week beginning on the third Monday in the September of that year;

• “nursing home” has the meaning it bears in regulation 19(3) of the Income Support Regulations (applicable amounts for persons in residential care and nursing homes);

• “partner” means a member of–

  (a)

  a married or unmarried couple; or

  (b)

  a polygamous marriage;

• “residential accommodation” has the meaning it bears in regulation 21(3) of the Income Support Regulations(7) (special cases); and

• “residential care home” has the meaning it bears in regulation 19(3) of the Income Support Regulations.

(3) In these Regulations a person—

(a) is in residential care if, disregarding any period of temporary absence, he lives in–

(i) a residential care home;

(ii) a nursing home;

(iii) residential accommodation; or

(iv) accommodation provided under section 3(1) of the Polish Resettlement Act 1947(8) (provision by the Secretary of State of accommodation in camps),

throughout the qualifying week and the period of 12 weeks immediately before the qualifying week;

(b) lives with another person if—

(i) disregarding any period of temporary absence, they share accommodation as their mutual home; and

(ii) they are not in residential care.

(4) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, a reference—

(a) to a numbered regulation is to the regulation in these Regulations bearing that number; and

(b) in a regulation to a numbered paragraph is to the paragraph in that regulation bearing that number.

Social fund winter fuel payments

2.  Subject to regulation 3, the Secretary of State shall pay to a person who—

(a) in respect of any day falling within the qualifying week is ordinarily resident in Great Britain; and

(b) has attained the age of 60 in or before the qualifying week,

a winter fuel payment of—

(i) £100 unless he is in residential care or head (ii)(aa) applies; or

(ii) £50 if income support or an income-based jobseeker’s allowance has not been, nor falls to be, paid to him in respect of the qualifying week and he is—

(aa) in that week living with a person to whom a payment under these Regulations has been, or falls to be, made in respect of the winter following the qualifying week; or

(bb) in residential care.

Persons not entitled to a social fund winter fuel payment

3.—(1) Regulation 2 shall not apply in respect of a person who—

(a) is in the qualifying week—

(i) a partner of a person aged 60 or over in the qualifying week to whom income support or an income-based jobseeker’s allowance has been, or falls to be, paid in respect of the qualifying week;

(ii) receiving free in-patient treatment and has been receiving free in-patient treatment for more than 52 weeks; or

(iii) detained in custody under a sentence imposed by a court; or

(b) subject to paragraph (2), has not made a claim for a winter fuel payment before the 31st March following the qualifying week in respect of the winter following that week.

(2) Paragraph (1)(b) shall not apply where—

(a) a payment has been made by virtue of regulation 4(1) before the 31st March following the qualifying week in respect of the winter following that week; or

(b) regulation 4(2) applies.

Making a winter fuel payment without a claim

4.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the Secretary of State may before the 31st March of the year following the year in which the qualifying week falls make a winter fuel payment under regulation 2 in respect of the preceding winter to a person who (disregarding regulation 3(b)) appears from official records held by the Secretary of State to be entitled to a payment under that regulation.

(2) Where a person becomes entitled to income support in respect of the qualifying week by virtue of a decision made after that week that section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (exclusions) ceases to apply to him the Secretary of State shall make a winter fuel payment to that person under regulation 2 in respect of the winter following the qualifying week.

(3) Subject to paragraph (4), for the purposes of paragraphs (1) and (2) official records held by the Secretary of State as to a person’s circumstances shall be sufficient evidence thereof for the purpose of deciding his entitlement to a winter fuel payment and its amount.

(4) Paragraph (3) shall not apply so as to exclude the revision of a decision under section 9 of the Social Security Act 1998 (revision of decisions) or the supersession of a decision under section 10(9) of that Act (decisions superseding earlier decisions) or the consideration of fresh evidence in connection with the revision or supersession of a decision.

Revocations

5.  The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 1998(10), the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Amendment Regulations 1998(11) and the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Amendment Regulations 1999(12) are hereby revoked.

Signed by Authority of the Secretary of State for Social Security.

Angela Eagle

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,

Department of Social Security

13th March 2000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations provide for winter fuel payments to be made out of the social fund to persons who, in the third week of September in any year—

(a) are aged 60 or over;

(b) are ordinarily resident in Great Britain;

(c) satisfy the criteria in regulation 2; and

(d) are not excluded by regulation 3.

Regulation 4 provides for winter fuel payments to be made without the need for a claim to persons—

(a) whose entitlement thereto can be established from official records held by the Secretary of State; and

(b) who are entitled to income support in the third week in September in a year by virtue of a decision made after that week that they are refugees.

It further provides that decisions as to entitlement which are made without a claim may be made on the basis of official records but not so as to exclude the consideration of other evidence on a revision or supersession of that decision under the Social Security Act 1998.

Regulation 5 revokes legislation which has hitherto provided for social fund winter fuel payments.

These Regulations do not impose a charge on businesses.

(1)

1992 c. 4; section 138(4) is an interpretation provision and is cited because of the meaning ascribed to the word “prescribed”. Section 175(1) was amended by the Transfer of Functions Act 1999 (c. 11), Schedule 8, paragraph 41.

(2)

1992 c. 5.

(3)

1998 c. 14.

(4)

See section 173(1)(b) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992.

(5)

S.I. 1975/555; regulation 2(2) was substituted by S.I. 1992/2595.

(6)

S.I. 1987/1967.

(7)

In regulation 21(3), the definition of “residential accommodation” was substituted by S.I. 1992/3147 and amended by S.I. 1995/916.

(8)

1947 c. 19; section 3(1) was amended by the Ministry of Social Security Act 1966 (c. 20), section 39(1) and Schedule 6, paragraph 3(1) and the Social Security Act 1980 (c. 30), section 20(1) and Schedule 4, paragraph 1(1)(a).

(9)

Section 10 was amended by paragraph 23 of Schedule 7 to the Social Security Contributions (Transfer of Functions, etc.) Act 1999 (c. 2).

(10)

S.I. 1998/19.

(11)

S.I. 1998/1910.

(12)

S.I. 1999/1880.