Supplementary Benefit (Resources) Regulations 1981
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1981/1527 |
| Year | 1981 |
1981 No. 1527
SOCIAL SECURITY
The Supplementary Benefit (Resources) Regulations 198126thOctober 1981
2ndNovember 1981
23rdNovember 1981
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
PART I
GENERAL
1. Citation and commencement
2. Interpretation
3. Calculation of resources
4. Notional resources
PART II
CAPITAL RESOURCES
5. Calculation of capital resources
6. Capital resources to be disregarded
7. Maximum capital resources for entitlement to pension or allowance
8. Effect of capital resources of dependants
PART III
INCOME RESOURCES
9. Calculation of income resources
10. Calculation of earnings
11. Calculation of other income
12. Effect of income resources of dependants
13. Payments made by or derived from liable relatives
PART IV
REVOCATIONS
14. Revocations
SCHEDULE: Regulations revoked
The Secretary of State for Social Services, with the consent of the Treasury, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by paragraph 1(2) and (3) 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 which are not subject to the requirement for prior parliamentary approval (b):—
PART I
GENERAL
Citation and commencement
1. These regulations may be cited as the Supplementary Benefit (Resources) 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;
"Aggregation Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Aggregation) Regulations 1981(c);
"allowance" means a supplementary allowance under section 1(1)(b) of the Act;
"assessment unit" means the claimant, and any partner and dependant of the claimant;
"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 and allowances);
"child benefit" means benefit under Part I of the Child Benefit Act 1975(d);
"claimant" means a claimant for supplementary benefit and references to a claimant's resources include, where under the provisions of the Act the requirements and resources of any person fall to be aggregated with and treated as those of the claimant, the resources of that person;
"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;
"Determination of Questions Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Determination of Questions) Regulations 1980(e);
"education authority" means a government department, a local education authority as defined in section 114(1) of the Education Act 1944(f), an education authority as defined in section 135(1) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980(g), an education and library board established under Article 3 of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1972(h) and any body which is a research council for the purposes of the Science and Technology Act 1965(i);
(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).
(b) See section 33(3)(c) of the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976.
(c) S.I. 1981/1524.
(d) 1975 c. 61.
(e) S.I. 1980/1643.
(f) 1944 c. 31.
(g) 1980 c. 44.
(h) S.I. 1972/1263 (N.I. 12).
(i) 1965 c. 4.
"family income supplement" means any supplement under the Family Income Supplements Act 1970(a);
"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;
"liable relative" means a spouse or former spouse, or a parent of a dependant, including a person who has not been adjudged putative father of a child but by reason of payments which he is making to or in respect of that child may reasonably be treated as such a father; and "payment made by or derived from a liable relative" shall be construed accordingly, except that a reference to such a payment shall not include a reference to a payment derived from the estate of a deceased liable relative;
"occupational pension scheme" means an occupational pension scheme within the meaning of the Social Security Pensions Act 1975(b); and "occupational pension" shall be construed accordingly, except that any reference to an occupational pension shall not include a reference to any element of that pension payable by way of compensation for injury, disease, disablement or death suffered by a person by reason of the service or employment in which he was engaged;
"partner" means one of a married or unmarried couple;
"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;
"Requirements Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Requirements) Regulations 1980(c);
"single parent" means a person who has a dependant and is not a partner;
"Social Security Act" means the Social Security Act 1975(d);
"student" means a person under pensionable age who has ceased relevant education and is attending a course of full-time education, including any period when he is not in attendance but in respect of which he receives a grant or award from a Minister of the Crown or an education authority; and "disabled student" means a person who by reason of a disability would, in comparison with other students, be unlikely to be able to obtain employment within a reasonable period of time;
"Tax Act" means the Income Tax and Corporation Taxes Act 1970(e);
"war disablement pension" means—
(a) a pension or other benefit awarded—
(i) in respect of disablement due to service in the armed forces of the Crown being a pension or other benefit within the meaning of section 12(1) of the Social Security (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1977(f); or, as the case may be,
(ii) under the Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act 1939(g), the Pensions (Navy, Army, Air Force and Mercantile Marine) Act 1939(h) or the Polish Resettlement Act 1947(i);
(a) 1970 c. 55.
(b) 1975 c. 60.
(c) S.I. 1980/1299; the relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1980/1774, 1981/1016, 1196, 1197.
(d) 1975 c. 14.
(e) 1970 c. 10.
(f) 1977 c. 5.
(g) 1939 c. 82.
(h) 1939 c. 83.
(i) 1947 c. 19.
(b) any retired pay or pension to which section 365(1) of the Tax Act applies, not being retired pay, pension or allowance to which sub-paragraph (a) of this definition applies; or
(c) any payment which the Secretary of State accepts as being analogous to any such retired pay, pension or allowance as is referred to in the preceding sub-paragraphs of this definition.
(2) Except in so far as the context otherwise requires any reference in these regulations to—
(a) a numbered section or Schedule is to the section of or Schedule to the Act bearing that number;
(b) a numbered regulation is to the regulation in these regulations bearing that number and any reference in a regulation to a numbered paragraph is a reference to the paragraph of that regulation bearing that number.
(3) These regulations shall be subject to section 6 of the Social Security (No. 2) Act 1980(a) (supplementary benefit in cases affected by trade disputes).
Calculation of resources
3.—(1) For the purposes of Schedule 1 resources for any period shall be calculated in the manner set out in these regulations.
(2) For the purposes of these regulations resources shall consist of capital resources and income resources, and in particular—
(a) any grant or gratuity paid under the Social Security Act shall be treated as a capital resource;
(b) any lump sum payment, including any instalment of a lump sum which falls to be paid by instalments, made, whether in pursuance of a court order or otherwise, by or derived from a liable relative, shall be treated—
(i) in a case where, if the payment were treated as a capital resource, the claimant's capital resources would exceed the amount mentioned in regulation 7, as a capital resource,
(ii) in any other case, as an income resource to which regulation 13 applies;
(c) any instalment of any other lump sum which falls to be paid by instalments shall be treated—
(i) in a case where, if the outstanding instalments were treated as a capital resource, the claimant's capital resources would exceed the amount mentioned in regulation 7, as an income resource,
(ii) in any other case, as a capital resource;
(d) any amount which becomes available to any member of the assessment unit by way of repayment of income tax which has been deducted from his emoluments in pursuance of section 204 of the Tax Act (pay as you earn) shall be treated—
(i) where that member is not in receipt of regular earnings from employment because either he is a person affected by a trade dispute or his employment has been temporarily suspended but not terminated, as an income resource only in the week in which it is received,
(ii) an any other case, as a capital resource.
(e) any other repayment of income tax shall be treated as an income resource (for the period to which regulation 9(2)(a) applies).
(a) 1980 c. 39.
(3) Where a resource which falls to be taken into account in accordance with these regulations would otherwise include a fraction of a penny that fraction shall be disregarded.
National resources
4.—(1) Any resource of which a member of the assessment unit has deprived himself for the purpose of securing supplementary benefit, or increasing the amount of any such benefit, may be treated as if it were still possessed by him.
(2) Any resource which either—
(a) would...
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