The Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Employment and Support Allowance and State Pension Credit (Carer’s Allowance Reassessment Capital Disregard) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

These Regulations amend various social security Regulations to make provision for the treatment, within the relevant benefits, of lump-sum payments of carer’s allowance made by the Department as a result of the reassessment exercise conducted in response to the Independent Review of Carer’s Allowance Overpayments, published on 21st July 2025.

Regulations 2 to 6 amend the State Pension Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003, the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 and the Universal Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 respectively. Each amendment inserts a provision to ensure that lump-sum payments made as part of the carer’s allowance reassessment exercise are disregarded as capital when determining entitlement to the relevant benefit.

These Regulations make provision for Northern Ireland only corresponding to provision made by regulations of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in relation to Great Britain. Accordingly, by virtue of section 149(3) of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 5 to, the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (c. 8) , they are not subject to the requirement in section 149(2) of that Act for prior reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.