838.Child Benefit is only payable to a person who is responsible for a child in any given week. Section 143 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 sets out the meaning of “person responsible for a child”. One of the necessary conditions is that the child is living with that person in that week. Various days of absence can be disregarded in determining whether the child is living with that person. Subsection (3)(c) prescribes that such days shall include days in which, in prescribed circumstances, the child is in residential accommodation following arrangements made under statutes specified in the current legislation, one being the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.
839.The intended effect of section 143(3)(c) and the regulation made under that power is to provide for Child Benefit to be payable in respect of children who live away from home, in residential accommodation, solely on account of a physical or mental illness or disability. The introduction of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, which repealed parts of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, had the unintended effect of excluding payment of Child Benefit in respect of a small group of disabled children in Scotland. This section restores the legislative basis for payments of Child Benefit in respect of this group, which are currently being made on an extra statutory basis.
Part III: Social Security Administration Child Benefit Section 72: Child benefit disregards