The Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance (Claimant Commitment Exceptions) (Amendment) Regulations 2022

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/376) (“the UC Regulations”) and the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/379) (“the ESA Regulations”) by setting out an additional exception to the requirement to accept a claimant commitment which is a condition of entitlement.

Regulation 16 of the UC Regulations and regulation 45 of the ESA Regulations contain two exceptions to the requirement to accept a claimant commitment, that is, where the Secretary of State considers that a person lacks capacity to accept a claimant commitment and where there are exceptional circumstances in which it would be unreasonable to expect a person to accept a claimant commitment. These Regulations provide an additional exception which exempts terminally ill claimants from the requirement to accept a claimant commitment. “Terminally ill” is defined in regulation 2 of the UC Regulations and regulation 2 of the ESA Regulations and means suffering from a progressive disease where death in consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within 6 months.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, public or voluntary sectors is foreseen.