Legislation round up: July 2016

A number of pieces of legislation which will impact on the work of housing and welfare practitioners have recently passed the Assembly.  Legislation is available online from Legislation.gov.uk.

The Discretionary Support Regulations

The Discretionary Support  Regulations (NI) 2016 will come into effect when Article 76 of the Welfare Reform (NI) Order 2015 is enacted.  The regulations set out the new regime for discretionary support payments which will replace the existing Social Fund from November 2016.  

These regulations set out the eligibility conditions for access to discretionary support grants and loans, including annual income thresholds, capital rules and income disregards.  The accompanying explanatory memorandum sets out the Department for Communities’ intention to reduce the maximum debt threshold for discretionary support to £1000 from its existing threshold of £1500.

Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations (NI) 2016

These regulations introduce the social sector size criteria, or “bedroom tax”, into Northern Ireland social security legislation.  The regulations will commence in January 2017.

The NI Assembly has assured the public that tenants will not feel the impact of this introduction for at least four years and that the measure will be fully mitigated.  However, these regulations now bring this change onto the statute books in Northern Ireland.

When the “bedroom tax” was introduced in Great Britain, the legislation contained a legal loophole allowing tenants who had lived in the same property since January 1996 to avoid this change.  The Northern Ireland legislation has been drafted in such a way to ensure that the transitional protection that had applied to claims prior to 1996 has been removed.  

Landlord Registration Scheme (Amendment) Regulations (NI) 2016

The introduction of certain welfare reform measures has necessitated these amendments to the landlord registration scheme. These regulations extend the provisions relating to access to the register to allow authorised officers of the Department for Communities to search the register to ensure that landlords are registered.  

From September 2016 relevant information from the register can be disclosed to authorised officers from the Department for Communities Department for Communities for the purposes of administering housing costs under Universal Credit and administering supplementary payments paid in respect of the application of the Benefit Cap.

The Registered Rents (Increase) Order (NI) 2016

This Order, which comes into effect on 1 August 2016, increases the registered rents for statutory and protected tenancies which meet the fitness standard by 1.3%.

You can search the rent register online for details of known statutory and protected tenancies.