Supplementary Benefit (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1981
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
1981 No. 1525
SOCIAL SECURITY
The Supplementary Benefit (Claims and Payments) Regulations 198126thOctober 1981
2ndNovember 1981
23rdNovember 1981
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
PART I
GENERAL
1. Citation and commencement
2. Interpretation
PART II
CLAIMS
3. Manner in which claims are to be made
4. Information to be given in connexion with claims
5. Time for claiming pension or allowance
PART III
PAYMENTS
6. Time and manner of payment of pension and allowance
7. Time and manner of payment of single payments
8. Information to be given in connexion with payment of benefit
9. Instruments of payment
10. Minimum amount of benefit payable
11. Payment of fractional amounts of benefit
12. Supplementary benefit in kind
13. Extinguishment of right to payment of sums by way of benefit where payment is not obtained within the prescribed period
PART IV
DEDUCTIONS AND PAYMENTS TO THIRD PARTIES
14. Interpretation of Part IV of these regulations
15. Circumstances in which payment of benefit is postponed
16. Regular payments to third parties for housing items
17. Regular payments to third parties for fuel items
18. Provisions further to regulations 16 and 17
19. Regular payments to landlords on behalf of boarders
20. Payments to local authorities in respect of residential accommodation
21. Payment of certain accommodation charges
22. Payment of housing requirements on behalf of prisoners
23. Payment of pension or allowance to third parties
24. Payments to be made when entitlement to pension or allowance ends
25. Payment of single payments to third parties
PART V
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS AND REVOCATIONS
26. Persons unable to act
27. Payment to a person under age 18
28. Payments on death
29. Travelling expenses in connexion with claims
30. Revocations
The Secretary of State for Social Services, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by sections 11 and 14(1) and (2) (a), (b), (c), (e), (g), (h), (i), and (k) of, and paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 to the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976(a) and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, and for the purpose only of consolidating regulations hereby revoked, hereby makes the following regulations:—
PART I
GENERAL
Citation and commencement
1. These regulations may be cited as the Supplementary Benefit (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1981 and shall come into operation on 23rd November 1981.
Interpretation
2.—(1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—
"the Act" means the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976;
"allowance" means a supplementary allowance under section 1(1)(b) of the Act;
"approved place" means a place approved by the Secretary of State for the purpose of obtaining payment of benefit;
(a) 1976 c. 71; the Act as amended (other than sections 31, 32, 35 and 36 and Schedules 4 and 6 to 8) is set out in Part II of Schedule 2 to the Social Security Act 1980 (c. 30).
"beneficiary" means a person entitled to benefit;
"benefit" means supplementary benefit;
"benefit week" has the meaning assigned to it in regulation 7 of the Determination of Questions Regulations (date of commencement, change and termination of entitlement to pensions or allowances);
"claimant" means a claimant for benefit;
"the Department" means the Department of Health and Social Security;
"Determination of Questions Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Determination of Questions) Regulations 1980(a);
"instrument of payment" means a serial order or any other instrument whatsoever which is intended to enable a person to obtain payment of benefit;
"normal requirements", "additional requirements" and "housing requirements" mean the requirements which are taken into account in the determination of requirements under Parts II, III and IV respectively of the Requirements Regulations;
"pension" means a supplementary pension under section 1(1)(a) of the Act;
"Requirements Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Requirements) Regulations 1980(b);
"Resources Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Resources) Regulations 1981(c);
"serial order" means one of a series of orders for the payment of sums on account of benefit which is, or has been, contained in a book of such orders;
"Single Payments Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Single Payments) Regulations 1981(d);
"Social Security Act" means the Social Security Act 1975(e);
"Trade Disputes Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Trade Disputes and Recovery from Earnings) Regulations 1980(f);
"unemployment benefit" means unemployment benefit under the Social Security Act;
"unemployment benefit office" means any office or place appointed by the Secretary of State for the purpose of claiming unemployment benefit; and "relevant unemployment benefit office" means the office which the claimant or beneficiary attends, or would attend if he were required to do so, for the purpose of claiming that benefit or would attend if he were entitled to that benefit;
"Urgent Cases Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Urgent Cases) Regulations 1981(g); and any reference to those regulations shall include a reference to those regulations in so far as they are applied by regulation 4 of the Trade Disputes Regulations.
(2) Part IV of these regulations (deductions and payments to third parties) shall be further interpreted in accordance with regulation 14.
(3) Except in so far as the context otherwise requires, any reference in these regulations to—
(a) a numbered section is to the section of the Act bearing that number;
(a) S.I. 1980/1643.
(b) S.I. 1980/1299.
(c) S.I. 1981/1527.
(d) S.I. 1981/1528.
(e) 1975 c. 14.
(f) S.I. 1980/1641.
(g) S.I. 1981/1529.
(b) a numbered regulation is to the regulation bearing that number in these regulations and any reference in a regulation to a numbered paragraph is a reference to the paragraph of that regulation bearing that number.
(4) Any notice or other document required or authorised to be given or sent to any person under the provisions of these regulations shall be deemed to have been given or sent if it was sent by post to that person at his last known address.
PART II
CLAIMS
Manner in which claims are to be made
3.—(1) Every claim for benefit shall be made in writing to the Secretary of State either—
(a) on a form approved for the purpose by him and supplied without charge by such persons as he may appoint or authorise for the purpose; or
(b) in such manner as he may accept as sufficient in the circumstances of any particular case or class of cases.
(2) A claim for benefit—
(a) in the case of a claim for an allowance by a claimant required to register and be available for employment pursuant to section 5, shall be delivered or sent (for forwarding to an office of the Department) to the relevant unemployment benefit office, unless in any case or class of cases the Secretary of State directs that sub-paragraph (b) shall apply;
(b) in any other case, shall be delivered or sent to an office of the Department.
(3) The date on which a claim for benefit is made shall be—
(a) in a case to which paragraph (2)(a) applies, the date on which it is received at the relevant unemployment benefit office;
(b) in any other case, the date on which it is received at an office of the Department.
(4) Where—
(a) a claim for benefit made in writing is defective on the day on which it is received, but is subsequently amended; or
(b) a claim for a pension or allowance is made other than in writing, but is subsequently made in writing,
the Secretary of State may treat the claim as if it had been duly made in the first instance.
(5) The Secretary of State may in any particular case or class of cases accept—
(a) a claim for benefit under section 3 (single payment to meet an exceptional need) other than in writing;
(b) in a case to which Part II of the Urgent Cases Regulations (emergency relief) applies, a claim from a person other than the person who, pursuant to the provisions of the Act, falls to be a claimant; and in a case to which this sub-paragraph applies, references to a claimant and a beneficiary in these regulations shall include such a person, but paragraph (2)(a) shall not apply to him.
Information to be given in connexion with claims
4. Every person who makes a claim for benefit shall furnish such certificates, documents, information and evidence for the purpose of determining the claim as may be required by the Secretary of State and, if reasonably so required, shall for that purpose attend at any office or place as the Secretary of State may direct.
Time for claiming pension or allowance
5.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), a claim for a pension or allowance shall be made no later than the first day of the period in respect of which it is made.
(2) Where a claim for a pension or allowance is made in respect of a period earlier than the day on which it is made, it shall be treated as if it had been made—
(a) where in any case the claimant proves that throughout that period there was good cause for failure to make the claim before the day on which it was made, on the first day of that period;
(b) where—
(i) the claimant has, in respect of that period, made a claim for benefit under the Social Security Act(a) or the Family Income Supplements Act 1970(b) or for a war disablement pension as defined in the Resources Regulations, and
(ii) his claim for a pension or allowance is made as soon as reasonably practicable after his receipt of the decision in respect of his claim for that benefit, supplement or pension,
on the day on which the claim for that benefit, supplement or pension was made;
(c) where the claimant has been an in-patient in a hospital or similar institution and—
(i) in the period immediately preceding his admission as an in-patient he was entitled to a pension or allowance, but ceased to be so entitled by reason only of being an in-patient, and
(ii) the claim is made within 21 days of his discharge,
on the day of his discharge;
(d) where the claim is made by a claimant...
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