Supplementary Benefit (Urgent Cases) Regulations 1981
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1981/1529 |
| Year | 1981 |
1981 No. 1529
SOCIAL SECURITY
The Supplementary Benefit (Urgent Cases) Regulations 198126thOctober 1981
2ndNovember 1981
23rdNovember 1981
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
PART I
GENERAL
1. Citation and commencement
2. Interpretation
3. Urgent cases
4. Single payments
5. Pensions and allowances
6. Circumstances in which and items for which sums shall not be paid
7. Recovery of sums paid
PART II
EMERGENCY RELIEF
8. Emergency relief cases
PART III
OTHER URGENT CASES
9. Other urgent cases
10. Loss of money
11. Income resource taken into account but not paid
12. Period between day of claim and day of entitlement
13. Income resources spent on essential items
14. Starting or resuming work
15. Unpaid or part-paid absences from work
16. Claimants who fail to comply with conditions of section 5 or 10
17. Entitlement to pension or allowance not established
18. Capital resources not readily realisable
19. Requirements or resources not immediately ascertainable
20. Suspension of payment
21. Persons from abroad
22. Failure to maintain
23. Unmarried couples
PART IV
DISCRETIONARY AMOUNTS
24. Discretionary amounts
PART V
RECOVERY
25. Sums not to be recovered
26. Prescribed benefits
PART VI
REVOCATIONS
27. Revocations
SCHEDULES
SCHEDULE 1 Single payments for emergency relief
SCHEDULE 2 Single payments for travel and household expenses in other
urgent cases
The Secretary of State for Social Services, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by sections 4(1) and (2) and 14(1) and (2)(c) of 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 (Urgent Cases) 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;
"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 or allowances);
"capital otherwise disregarded" means any capital which falls, or would fall, to be disregarded under regulation 6(1)(b) and (2) of the Resources Regulations which can readily be converted into a liquid asset;
"claimant" means a claimant for supplementary 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).
"close relative" means a partner, spouse, parent, child, step-parent, step-child, brother or sister;
"dependant" means a person whose requirements and resources, by virtue of paragraph 3(2) of Schedule 1 to the Act, are or would be aggregated with and treated as those of the claimant;
"Determination of Questions Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Determination of Questions) Regulations 1980(a);
"disaster" means the disaster in respect of which a claim is made for emergency relief;
"Duplication and Overpayment Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Duplication and Overpayment) Regulations 1980(b);
"employment" means remunerative full-time work, other than self-employment, within the meaning of section 6(1) of the Act;
"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;
"income otherwise disregarded" means any income which falls or would fall to be disregarded by virtue of any provision of Part III of the Resources Regulations;
"partner" means one of a married or unmarried couple;
"pension" means a supplementary pension under section 1(1)(a) of the Act;
"Requirements Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Requirements) Regulations 1980(c);
"Resources Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Resources) Regulations 1981(d);
"Single Payments Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Single Payments) Regulations 1981(e).
(2) 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;
(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.
Urgent cases
3.—(1) For the purposes of section 4 (provision for cases of urgent need) urgent cases shall be, except in so far as Part II of the Supplementary Benefit (Trade Disputes and Recovery from Earnings) Regulations 1980(f) provides otherwise, only those cases to which Parts II, III and IV of these regulations apply where the item in question, or funds for that item or, except in any circumstances to which regulation 23 applies, funds to meet the expenses in question are not readily available to the assessment unit from its own resources or from any other source (for example, friends, relatives, credit facilities, a
(a) S.I. 1980/1643.
(b) S.I. 1980/1580.
(c) S.I. 1980/1299.
(d) S.I. 1981/1527.
(e) S.I. 1981/1528.
(f) S.I. 1980/1641.
voluntary organisation) or in particular in a case to which Part II applies, from a local authority or relief fund; and—
(a) in determining whether funds are readily available to the assessment unit, regard shall be had to its requirements determined in accordance with regulation 5(2)(a) and (3)(a) and (b) (but not regulation 5(2)(c));
(b) in determining the assessment unit's own resources for the purposes of this paragraph, regard shall be had to any capital, including any capital otherwise disregarded, and income resources calculated in accordance with regulation 5(2)(b).
(2) In an urgent case there shall be payable in accordance with these regulations supplementary benefit by way of a single payment or pension or allowance, and accordingly—
(a) section 3 (supplementary benefit to meet exceptional need) shall be modified in accordance with regulation 4(1);
(b) section 5 (entitlement to allowance subject to registration and availability for employment) shall not apply;
(c) section 6(1) (exclusion from supplementary benefit of persons in employment) shall not apply;
(d) section 10(4) (exclusion from allowance of persons who fail to comply with directions to attend courses) shall not apply;
(e) Schedule 1 to the Act (provisions for determining right to benefit and amount of benefit) shall be modified in accordance with regulation 5, and in a case to which regulation 23 applies, in accordance with regulation 23(2).
Single payments
4.—(1) In a case to which regulation 8(1) (items needed in emergency relief cases), 9(a) (items needed in other urgent cases) or 24 (discretionary amounts) applies by virtue of which an amount of supplementary benefit is payable in accordance with this regulation—
(a) section 3(1) shall be modified so that there shall be payable in such a case supplementary benefit by way of a single payment;
(b) except in so far as sub-paragraph (c) provides that a reduced amount shall be payable, the amount of that single payment shall be—
(i) the amount specified for that item in column 2 of Schedule 1 (emergency relief) or of Schedule 2 (other urgent cases),
(ii) where the payment is in respect of the purchase of an item, it shall be such amount as is necessary to purchase an item of reasonable quality,
(iii) where the payment is in respect of costs of services provided, it shall be the amount of such costs to the extent that they are reasonable;
(c) where funds mentioned in regulation 3(1) are available to the assessment unit, but are insufficient to meet the cost of the item or services in question, the amount of the single payment payable shall be the difference between those funds and the amount which would, but for those funds, be payable by virtue of sub-paragraph (b) above.
(2) Nothing in these regulations shall be construed as precluding the payment of two or more single payments payable by virtue of one or more regulations by means of a single instrument of payment.
Pensions and allowances
5.—(1) The amount of any pension or allowance to which a claimant is entitled under these regulations shall, except in a case to which regulation 23 applies, be the amount by which his resources fall short of his requirements.
(2) For the purposes of ascertaining that amount—
(a) the claimant's requirements shall be determined in accordance with paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 to the Act except in so far as it is modified by paragraph (3) of this regulation;
(b) the claimant's resources shall be calculated pursuant to paragraph 1 (2) and (3) of Schedule 1 to the Act except in so far as it is modified by paragraph (4) of this regulation;
(c) paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the Act shall apply except in so far as regulation 22 provides otherwise.
(3) The modifications mentioned in paragraph (2)(a) shall be as follows:—
(a) for 14 days beginning on the first day of the period to which paragraph (7) applies, and for any day thereafter falling before the first day of the benefit week beginning next after the 14th day, the weekly amount applicable for normal requirements shall be—
(i) in respect of a claimant who is a relevant person, the rate for the time being applicable to a person to whom paragraph 2 of the table in paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 1 to the Act (ordinary rate for relevant persons) applies less 25 per cent.,
(ii) in respect of a...
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