Supplementary Benefit (Requirements) Regulations 1980
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1980/1299 |
1980 No. 1299
SOCIAL SECURITY
The Supplementary Benefit (Requirements) Regulations 198029thAugust 1980
24thNovember 1980
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
PART I
GENERAL
1. Citation and commencement
2. Interpretation
3. Determination of requirements
PART II
NORMAL REQUIREMENTS
4. Normal requirements
5. Normal requirements of relevant persons and householders
6. Normal requirements of persons other than relevant persons and householders
7. Long-term rates for normal requirements
8. Modification of normal requirements in certain cases of actual or notional unemployment benefit disqualification
9. Modification of normal requirements of boarders
10. Modification of normal requirements in special cases
PART III
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
11. Additional requirements
12. Heating
13. Items other than heating
PART IV
HOUSING REQUIREMENTS
14. Housing requirements
15. Rent
16. Mortgage payments
17. Maintenance and insurance
18. Interest on loans for repairs and improvements
19. Miscellaneous outgoings
20. Special cases
21. Restriction where amounts excessive
22. Reduction in amounts applicable for certain occupants of the home
23. Non-householder's contribution
SCHEDULES
SCHEDULE 1—Normal requirements of persons other than relevant persons and householders
SCHEDULE 2—Modification of normal requirements in special cases
SCHEDULE 3—Additional requirements
PART I—Heating
PART II—Items other than heating
Whereas a draft of the following regulations was laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament:
Now, therefore, the Secretary of State for Social Services, with the consent of the Treasury, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by sections 1(3), 2(1A) and (2) of and paragraph 2(1), (3), (4) and (5) of Schedule 1 to the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976(a) and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes the following regulations:—
PART I
GENERAL
Citation and commencement
1. These regulations may be cited as the Supplementary Benefit (Requirements) Regulations 1980 and shall come into operation on 24th November 1980.
Interpretation
2.—(1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—
"assessment unit" means the claimant and any partner and dependant of the claimant;
"allowance" means a supplementary allowance under section 1(1)(b) of the Act;
"available capital" in relation to a claimant means capital which falls to be disregarded under regulation 6(2) of the Resources Regulations;
"blind" means so blind as to be unable to perform any work for which eyesight is essential;
"boarder" has the meaning assigned to it in regulation 9(9)(b) of these regulations;
"claimant" means a claimant for supplementary benefit;
"close relative" means a parent, child, step-parent, step-child, brother or sister;
"dependant" means a person whose requirements and resources are by virtue of paragraph 3(2) of Schedule 1 to the Act aggregated with and treated as those of the claimant;
"the home" means the accommodation, with any garage, garden and outbuildings, normally occupied by the assessment unit and any other members of the same household as their home and it includes also any premises not so occupied which it would be impracticable or unreasonable to expect to be sold separately, in particular the croft land where, in Scotland, the home is a croft;
"non-dependant" means a person who is a member of the same household as the member or members of the assessment unit but is neither a member of the unit nor a person who satisfies, or if he were a member
(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).
of the unit would satisfy, the condition of sub-paragraph (a) of paragraph (2) of regulation (5);
"partner" means one of a married or unmarried couple;
"patient" means a person, other than a prisoner, who is being maintained free of charge while undergoing medical or other treatment as an in-patient—
(a) in a hospital or similar institution maintained or administered under the National Health Service Act 1977(a) or the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978(b) or by or on behalf of the Secretary of State or by or on behalf of the Defence Council; or
(b) pursuant to arrangements made by the Secretary of State or by any body in exercise of functions on behalf of the Secretary of State under those Acts in a hospital or similar institution not so maintained or administered;
"pension" means a supplementary pension under section 1(1)(a) of the Act;
"person affected by a trade dispute" means a person whose requirements fall to be disregarded to any extent by virtue of section 8 of the Act;
"prisoner" means a person who is in prison or otherwise detained in legal custody, including any period during which he is a patient in any hospital or similar institution while still liable to be so imprisoned or detained, or during which he is liable to be detained in such institution by virtue of any provision of the Mental Health Act 1959(c) or the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1960(d);
"relevant person" means that one of a married or unmarried couple whose requirements and resources include those of the other by virtue of paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 1 to the Act;
"rent" includes corresponding payments in respect of a licence or premission to occupy the home and "let" and "letting" shall be correspondingly construed;
"the Resources Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Resources) Regulations 1980(e);
"the Act" means the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976;
"the Social Security Act" means the Social Security Act 1975(f);
"the table" means the table of the normal requirements of relevant persons and householders in paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 1 to the Act.
(2) References in these regulations to the long-term and ordinary rates for couples are to the amounts for the time being specified in paragraphs 1 and 2 respectively of the table, for householders to the amounts for the time being specified in paragraphs 3 and 4 respectively of the table and for non-householders to the amounts for the time being specified in paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to these regulations.
(3) A person shall be treated as being, or not being, a member of the same household as another person for the purposes of these regulations if he would be so treated for the purposes of regulations made pursuant to section 34(3)(a) of the Act.
(4) Except in so far as the context otherwise requires any reference in these regulations to—
(a) 1977 c. 49.
(b) 1978 c. 29.
(c) 1959 c. 72.
(d) 1960 c. 61.
(e) S.I. 1980/1300.
(f) 1975 c. 14.
(a) a numbered section is to the section of the Act bearing that number;
(b) a numbered regulation or Schedule is to the regulation in or Schedule to these regulations bearing that number and any reference in a regulation or Schedule to a numbered paragraph is a reference to the paragraph of that regulation or Schedule bearing that number.
Determination of requirements
3. For the purposes of Schedule 1 to the Act and subject to paragraph 2 of that Schedule, a person's requirements shall be determined in accordance with these regulations.
PART II
NORMAL REQUIREMENTS
Normal requirements
4.—(1) The category of normal requirements shall relate to all items of normal expenditure on day-to-day living, other than items within Part IV of these regulations, including in particular food, household fuel, the purchase, cleaning, repair and replacement of clothing and footwear, normal travel costs, weekly laundry costs, miscellaneous household expenses such as toilet articles, cleaning materials, window-cleaning and the replacement of small household goods (for example crockery, cutlery, cooking utensils, light bulbs) and leisure and amenity items such as television licence and rental, newspapers, confectionery and tobacco.
(2) The weekly amount of a person's normal requirements shall be determined in accordance with the table and with regulations 5 to 7 but subject, where applicable, to the modifications of those provisions made by regulations 8 to 10.
Normal requirements of relevant persons and householders
5.—(1) Paragraphs 2 and 4 of the table (ordinary rate for couples and householders) shall have effect as if for the weekly amounts specified in the second column of those paragraphs there were substituted—
(a) in paragraph 2, £34·60; and
(b) in paragraph 4, £21·30.
(2) For the purposes of the table a householder is a person, other than a partner, who—
(a) under Part IV of these regulations (housing requirements) is treated as responsible for expenditure on items to which any of those regulations other than regulation 23 (non-householder's contribution) relates or, if the household incurs no such expenditure, is the member of the household with major control over household expenditure;
(b) does not share such responsibility or control with another member of the same household; and
(c) is either not absent from the home or whose absence is for a period which has not yet continued for more than 13 weeks.
Normal requirements of persons other than relevant persons and householders
6.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the weekly amount of the normal requirements of a person who is neither a relevant person (nor the partner of a relevant person) nor a person who satisfies the conditions of regulation 5(2) (meaning of householder) shall be determined in accordance with Schedule 1.
(2) Subject to paragraph (3), where a person to whom paragraph (1) applies is a claimant who satisfies the conditions of paragraph (2) of regulation 5 except that, contrary to sub-paragraph (b) of that paragraph, he shares responsibility for, or control of, the expenditure there referred to with another member of the same household, the weekly amount of his normal requirements applicable under paragraph 1 or 2 of Schedule 1 shall be increased by the difference between that amount and the corresponding...
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