Homelessness Regulations 1996
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1996/2754 |
| Year | 1996 |
1996 No. 2754
HOUSING, ENGLAND AND WALES
The Homelessness Regulations 1996
Made 30th October 1996
Laid before Parliament 31th October 1996
Coming into force 20th January 1997
The Secretary of State for the Environment, as respects England, and the Secretary of State for Wales, as respects Wales, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by sections 185(2) and (3), 194(6) and 198(4) of the Housing Act 19961, and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, hereby make the following Regulations:
Citation and commencement
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Homelessness Regulations 1996 and shall come into force on 20th January 1997.
Interpretation
2. In these Regulations —
“the Act” means the Housing Act 1996;
“the 1971 Act” means the Immigration Act 1971;2
“claim for asylum” means a claim made by a person that it would be contrary to the United Kingdom’s obligations under the Convention for him to be removed from or required to leave the United Kingdom;
“the Common Travel Area” means the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland collectively;
“the Convention” means the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees done at Geneva on 28th July 19513, as extended by Article 1(2) of the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees done at New York on 31st January 1967;4
“EEA national” means a national of a State which is a Contracting Party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on 2nd May 1992 as adjusted by the Protocol signed at Brussels on 17th March 1993; and
“the immigration rules” means the immigration rules within the meaning of the 1971 Act.
Classes of persons subject to immigration control who are eligible for housing assistance
3. The following are the classes of persons prescribed for the purposes of section 185(2) of the Act (persons subject to immigration control who are eligible for housing assistance) —
Class A — a person recorded by the Secretary of State as a refugee within the definition in Article 1 of the Convention;
Class B — a person who has made a claim for asylum which is recorded by the Secretary of State as having been made on his arrival (other than on his re-entry) in the United Kingdom from a country outside the Common Travel Area and which has not been recorded by the Secretary of State as having been determined or abandoned;
Class C — a person who becomes an asylum seeker, that is to say —
(i) whilst that person is present in Great Britain the Secretary of State makes a declaration to the effect that the country of which that person is a national is subject to such a fundamental change in circumstances that he would not normally order the return of a person to that country; and
(ii) that person makes a claim for asylum which is recorded by the Secretary of State as having been made within three months from the day on which that declaration was made,
provided that the claim for asylum has not been recorded by the Secretary of State as having been determined or abandoned;
Class D — a person (other than a person falling within Class B) who —
(i) on or before 4th February 1996 made a claim for asylum; and
(ii) was on that date entitled to benefit under the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987;5
where either —
(i) his claim has not been recorded by the Secretary of State as having...
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