
1 

(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2003 and shall come into force on 12th April 2004.
(2) In these Regulations—
 “the Council Tax Benefit Regulations” means the Council Tax Benefit (General) Regulations 1992;
 “the Housing Benefit Regulations” means the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987; and
 “the State Pension Credit Regulations” means the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (State Pension Credit) Regulations 2003.
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(1) In paragraph 16(2) of Schedule 3 to the Council Tax Benefit Regulations (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of earnings—recipients of tax credits)—
(a) in paragraph (b)—
(i) omit sub-head (bb) in head (ii);
(ii) in heads (iii) and (iv), for “30 hours” substitute “16 hours”; and
(iii) in head (iv) omit the words “or both members are”; and
(b) after paragraph (b), insert the following—“or
(c) the claimant is, or if he has a partner, one of them is, a person to whom regulation 18(3) of the Working Tax Credit Regulations (eligibility for 50 plus element) applies, or would apply if an application for working tax credit were to be made in his case.”.
(2) In paragraph 57 of Schedule 4 to those Regulations (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings)—
(a) before “paragraph 16” insert “sub-paragraph (1) of”; and
(b) for the words from “entitled” to “2002” substitute “a person who satisfies any of the conditions of sub-paragraph (2) of that paragraph”.
3 

(1) In paragraph 16(2) of Schedule 3 to the Housing Benefit Regulations (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of earnings—recipients of tax credits)—
(a) in paragraph (b)—
(i) omit sub-head (bb) in head (ii);
(ii) in heads (iii) and (iv), for “30 hours” substitute “16 hours”; and
(iii) in head (iv) omit the words “or both members are”; and
(b) after paragraph (b), insert the following—“or
(c) the claimant is, or if he has a partner, one of them is, a person to whom regulation 18(3) of the Working Tax Credit Regulations (eligibility for 50 plus element) applies, or would apply if an application for working tax credit were to be made in his case.”.
(2) In paragraph 58 of Schedule 4 to those Regulations (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings)—
(a) before “paragraph 16” insert “sub-paragraph (1) of”; and
(b) for the words from “entitled” to “2002” substitute “a person who satisfies any of the conditions of sub-paragraph (2) of that paragraph”.
4 

(1) In regulation 8 of the State Pension Credit Regulations (housing benefit—income and capital), in paragraph (4) of the substituted regulation 23 (calculation of claimant’s income in savings credit only cases)—
(a) in sub-paragraph (c)—
(i) after head (iii) insert “or”; and
(ii) omit head (v) and the word “or” which precedes it; and
(b) after sub-paragraph (c) insert—“
(cc) any amount to be disregarded by virtue of paragraph 9(1) of Schedule 3A;”.
(2) In regulation 17 of those Regulations (council tax benefit—income and capital), in paragraph (4) of the substituted regulation 15 (calculation of claimant’s income in savings credit only cases)—
(a) in sub-paragraph (c)—
(i) after head (iii) insert “or”; and
(ii) omit head (v) and the word “or” which precedes it; and
(b) after sub-paragraph (c) insert—“
(cc) any amount to be disregarded by virtue of paragraph 9(1) of Schedule 3A;”.
(3) In Schedule 2 to those Regulations (disregards), in the First Schedule (which is to have effect as Schedule 3A to the Council Tax Benefit Regulations and Schedule 3A to the Housing Benefit Regulations)—
(a) in paragraph 5(1)(a), after head (v) insert—“
(vi) the disability element or the severe disability element of working tax credit under Schedule 2 to the Working Tax Credit (Entitlement and Maximum Rate) Regulations 2002; or”; and
(b) in paragraph 9(2)—
(i) in paragraph (b)(ii), omit sub-head (bb);
(ii) in paragraph (b)(iii) and (iv), for “30 hours” substitute “16 hours”;
(iii) in paragraph (b)(iv) omit the words “or both are”, and for the words from “week and” to the end, substitute “week, and paragraph 5(1) above is satisfied in respect of that person.”; and
(iv) after paragraph (b) insert the following—“or
(c) the claimant is, or, if he has a partner, one of them is, a person to whom regulation 18(3) of the Working Tax Credit Regulations (eligibility for 50 plus element) applies, or would apply if an application for working tax credit were to be made in his case.”.
(4) In that Schedule 2, in the Second Schedule (which is to have effect as Schedule 4A to the Council Tax Benefit Regulations and Schedule 4A to the Housing Benefit Regulations), in paragraph 21, for the words from “entitled” to “2002” substitute “a person who satisfies the conditions of sub-paragraph (2) of that paragraph”.
Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Chris Pond
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,
Department for Work and Pensions
9th October 2003