Supplementary Benefit (Urgent Cases) Regulations 1980
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1980/1642 |
| Year | 1980 |
1980 No. 1642
SOCIAL SECURITY
The Supplementary Benefit (Urgent Cases) Regulations 198030thOctober 1980
3rdNovember 1980
24thNovember 1980
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. No or reduced entitlement to pension or allowance because resources exceed requirements
19. Requirements or resources not 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
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, hereby makes the following regulations:—
PART I
GENERAL
Citation and commencement
1. These regulations may be cited as the Supplementary Benefit (Urgent Cases) Regulations 1980 and shall come into operation on 24th November 1980.
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;
"available capital" in relation to a claimant 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;
"available income" in relation to a claimant means income which falls or would fall to be disregarded by virtue of any provision of Part III of the Resources Regulations;
"benefit week" has the meaning assigned to it in regulations made pursuant to section 14(2)(f) of the Act (days on which entitlement to pension or allowance is to begin or end or the amount thereof is to change);
"claimant" means a claimant for supplementary benefit;
"close relative" means a parent, child, step-parent, step-child, brother or sister;
(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).
"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;
"disaster" means the disaster in respect of which a claim is made for emergency relief;
"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 out-buildings, 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;
"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 the Supplementary Benefit (Requirements) Regulations 1980(a);
"resident" means a person who is resident in the place in which or, as the case may be, the area in which the disaster occurred;
"Resources Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Resources) Regulations 1980(b);
"Single Payments Regulations" means the Supplementary Benefit (Single Payments) Regulations 1980(c);
"visitor" means a person who is a visitor to the place in which or, as the case may be, the area in which the disaster occurred.
(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(d) provide 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 funds to meet the expenses in question, are not readily available to the assessment unit from any other source (for example, friends, relatives, credit facilities, a voluntary organisation) and in particular from any available income and available capital, and in any case to which Part II applies, from a local authority or relief fund.
(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);
(a) S.I. 1980/1299.
(b) S.I. 1980/1300.
(c) S.I. 1980/985.
(d) S.I. 1980/1641.
(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.
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 no amount or 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 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) section 3(2) shall be modified so that where a claimant has any available capital, or any available income, any single payment which would, but for this sub-paragraph, be payable under these regulations shall be payable only to the extent that its amount, or where more than one payment falls to be made on one day their aggregate amount, exceeds the amount of that available capital or income.
(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 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 or 23 provides otherwise.
(3) The modification mentioned in paragraph (2)(a) shall be as follows:—
(a) for the first 14 days, 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 any dependant, the rate applicable to a dependant to whom paragraph 3(d) of Schedule 1 to the Requirements Regulations (child less than 11) applies,
(ii) in respect of any person to whom any paragraph in the first column of the table to paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 1 to the Act (relevant persons and householders) applies or to whom paragraph 1(a) of Schedule 1 to the Requirements Regulations (non-householders aged 18 or over), the rate for the time being applicable to a person to whom paragraph 4 of that table (ordinary rate for householders) applies less 25 per cent.,
(iii) in respect of any person to whom regulation 9 of the Requirements Regulations (boarders) applies, the allowance for personal expenses applicable under paragraph (8) of that regulation less 25 per cent., and, if the charge for board and lodging falls due during the period to which this head applies and the accommodation would be lost if that charge were not met under...
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