The Housing Benefit (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2014

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations )

These Regulations amend the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2001, the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (“the Housing Benefit Regulations”) and the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006.

Regulation 2 amends the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2001 to allow for a supersession of a housing benefit award when a claimant who was receiving disability living allowance transfers onto personal independence payment. The effective date of such a change will be the first day after entitlement to disability living allowance ends except where the change occurs in same weeks as the 1st April or the first full week in April. In those cases the change will align with other changes to housing benefit and take effect on 1st April or the first Monday of April, respectively, depending on the frequency of the claimant’s rental liability.

Regulation 3(2) amends the definition of “young individual” in the Housing Benefit Regulations. This corrects an error in numbering and ensures that the paragraph added by the Housing Benefit and Universal Credit (Size Criteria) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/2828) is numbered (j) and follows the paragraph (i) added by Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Consequential and Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order (S.I. 2013/1465).

Regulation 3(3) and (6) amends the Housing Benefit Regulations in various places to provide that a person is treated as receiving personal independence payment while in hospital only where payment ceases because the person has gone into hospital (rather than claimed in hospital). Regulation 3(3) also makes a consequential amendment to add a missing cross-reference relating to personal independence payment.

Regulation 3(4) amends the Housing Benefit Regulations to update references to the “social security contributions” of self-employed earners to “national insurance contributions”. Regulation 3(5) corrects a reference to “determination” so that it refers to a “decision”.

Regulation 4 makes similar amendments to the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006, except that there is no amendment to the definition of “young individual” as the Regulations do not apply to them.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on the private sector or civil society organisations.