Office of Public Sector Information
(1) Housing benefit provided by virtue of a scheme under section 122 of the Contributions and Benefits Act (in this Act referred to as “the housing benefit scheme”)—
(a) is to be in the form of a rate rebate, if it is in respect of payments by way of rates;
(b) is to be in the form of a rent rebate, if it is in respect of payments, other than payments by way of rates, to be made to the Housing Executive; and
(c) is in any other case to be in the form of a rent allowance.
(2) The rebates and allowances referred to in subsection (1) above may take any of the following forms, that is to say—
(a) a payment or payments by the Housing Executive or the Department of the Environment, as the case may be, to the person entitled to the benefit; and
(b) a reduction in the amount of any payments which that person is liable to make to the Housing Executive or the Department of the Environment, as the case may be, by way of rent or rates; or
(c) such a payment or payments and such a reduction;
and in any statutory provision (whenever passed or made) “pay”, in relation to housing benefit, includes discharge in any of those forms.
(3) Housing benefit shall be administered by—
(a) the Housing Executive in so far as it relates to persons who are tenants of the Executive, private tenants or tenants of registered housing associations;
(b) the Department of the Environment in so far as it relates to persons who own and occupy their dwellings.
(4) Regulations may provide that in prescribed cases a payment made by a person entitled to a rent allowance shall be treated for the purposes of subsection (1)(a) above as being, to such extent as may be prescribed, a payment by way of rates.
(5) Circumstances may be prescribed in which a rate rebate may be treated as if it fell to be paid as a rent allowance.
(6) In this section—
“private tenants” means tenants under any tenancy except—
a tenancy under which the estate of the landlord belongs to—
the Housing Executive; or
a registered housing association;
a tenancy the purpose of which is to confer on the tenant the right to occupy a dwelling-house for a holiday;
“registered housing association” means a housing association registered in the register maintained under Part VII of the [S.I. 1981/156 (N.I. 3).] Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.
(1) The Department shall in respect of each financial year pay to the Housing Executive a grant towards the expenditure incurred or to be incurred by the Executive in that year under this Part (including, if the Department so determines, an amount towards the cost of administering housing benefit).
(2) The amount of the grant under subsection (1) above which is to be paid to the Housing Executive shall be such as the Department may, with the approval of the Department of Finance and Personnel, determine.
(3) A grant under subsection (1) above shall be payable by the Department at such time and in such manner as the Department may think fit.
(1) Unless the Department otherwise determines, a grant under section 127 above shall not be payable until the Housing Executive has made a claim for it in such form as the Department may determine.
(2) The Department may withhold from the Housing Executive so much of any grant under section 127 above as it thinks fit until either—
(a) the Executive has supplied it with prescribed particulars relating to its claim for a grant and complied with prescribed conditions as to records, certificates, audit or otherwise; or
(b) the Department is satisfied that there is a good reason for the Executive’s failure to supply those particulars or comply with those conditions.
(3) If the Housing Executive fails to make a claim for a grant within such period as the Department considers reasonable, the Department may withhold from the Executive such part of the grant as it thinks fit for so long as it thinks fit.
(4) Where the amount of the grant paid to the Housing Executive for any year is found to be incorrect, the amount payable to it for any subsequent year may be adjusted for the purpose of rectifying that mistake in whole or in part.
Whenever the Secretary of State makes an order under section 141, 143, 145 or 146 of the Great Britain Administration Act (alteration of contributions), the Department may make a corresponding order for Northern Ireland.
Whenever the Secretary of State makes an order under section 148 of the Great Britain Administration Act directing that earnings factors for any tax year be increased by any percentage (in order to restore their value in relation to the general level of earnings so far as they are relevant to the calculation of the additional pension in the rate of any long-term benefit, the calculation of any guaranteed minimum pension or any other calculation required under Part III of the [1975 c. 60.] Social Security Pensions Act 1975), the Department may make an order for Northern Ireland directing that corresponding earnings factors for the same year be increased by a corresponding percentage.
Whenever the Secretary of State makes regulations prescribing an amount which an employer’s contributions payments must not exceed if he is to be a small employer for the purposes of section 154 of the Great Britain Contributions and Benefits Act, the Department shall make corresponding regulations for Northern Ireland.
(1) Whenever the Secretary of State makes an order under section 150 of the Great Britain Administration Act the Department may make a corresponding order for Northern Ireland.
(2) An increase in a sum such as is specified in subsection (3)(b) below shall form part of the Category A or Category B retirement pension of the person to whom it is paid and an increase in a sum such as is specified in subsection (3)(a) below shall be added to and form part of that pension but shall not form part of the sum increased.
(3) The sums referred to in subsection (2) above are those which are—
(a) payable by virtue of Article 37(6) of the Pensions Order to a person who is also entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement pension (including any sum payable by virtue of Article 38(3) of that Order); or
(b) payable to such a person as part of his Category A or Category B retirement pension by virtue of—
(i) an order made under this section corresponding to an order made under section 150 of the Great Britain Administration Act by virtue of paragraph (e)(ii) of subsection (1) of that section;
(ii) an order made under section 120 of the [1975 c. 14.] 1975 Act corresponding to an order made under section 126A of the Social Security Act 1975; or
(iii) an order made under Article 64 of the [1986 c. 50.] 1986 Order corresponding to an order made under section 63(1)(d) of the Social Security Act 1986.
(4) Where any increment under Article 37(6) of the Pensions Order—
(a) is increased in any tax year by an order under Article 39A of that Order; and
(b) in that tax year also falls to be increased by an order under this section,
the increase under this section shall be the amount that would have been specified in the order, but for this subsection, less the amount of the increase under Article 39A of the Pensions Order.
(5) Where sums are payable to a person by virtue of Article 37(6) of the Pensions Order (including such sums payable by virtue of Article 38(3) of that Order) during a period ending with the date on which he became entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement pension, then, for the purpose of determining the amount of his Category A or Category B retirement pension, orders made under this section during that period shall be deemed to have come into force (consecutively in the order in which they were made) on the date on which he became entitled to that pension.
(6) The reference in subsection (1) above to an order made under section 150 of the Great Britain Administration Act includes a reference to an order made in exercise of the powers conferred by regulations made under subsection (11) of that section.
Whenever the Secretary of State makes an order under section 152 of the Great Britain Administration Act, the Department may make a corresponding order for Northern Ireland.
(1) Regulations may, with effect from any day on or after that on which there is an increase in the rate or any of the rates of child benefit, reduce any sum specified in any of the provisions mentioned in subsection (2) below to such extent as the Department thinks appropriate having regard to that increase.
(2) The provisions referred to in subsection (1) above are the following provisions of Schedule 4 to the Contributions and Benefits Act—
(a) paragraph 6 of Part I (child’s special allowance);
(b) paragraph 5 of Part III (guardian’s allowance);
(c) column (2) of Part IV (increase for child dependants);
(d) paragraph 7 of Part V (increase of weekly rate of disablement pension in respect of child dependants);
(e) paragraph 12 of Part V (allowance in respect of deceased’s children).
Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992