These Regulations further amend the Social Security (Credits) Regulations 1975 (“the Credits Regulations”) and the Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) Regulations 1994 (“the Incapacity Benefit Regulations”).

Regulation 2 amends the Credits Regulations by inserting new regulation 9D of those Regulations to provide that, for the purposes of entitlement to any contributory benefit, certain prisoners who have had their conviction of a single offence or convictions or two or more offences quashed shall, upon application in writing to the Secretary of State, be entitled to be credited with such earnings or, as the case may be, contributions to make any year in which there is a week (or part of a week) during which such a prisoner was detained in legal custody, a reckonable year for the purposes of entitlement to any benefit. The new regulation also provides for any such application to be made by electronic means.

Regulation 3 amends the Incapacity Benefit Regulations by inserting a new sub-paragraph (ba) into paragraph (2) of regulation 2B of those Regulations to extend the relaxation of the first contribution condition for incapacity benefit to those prisoners to whom regulation 2 of these Regulations applies.

These Regulations do not impose any costs on business.