Commentary on Sections Schedule 24 – Social security, child support and tax credits Part 12 - Amendments of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 (S.I. 998/1506 (N.I. 10))
894.Paragraph 139 amends Article 68 of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998, to modify the definition of “lone parent”. Article 68 provides for regulations to be made to end the provision whereby a lone parent receives a higher rate of child benefit, these regulations contain transitional and savings provisions whereby certain people continue to receive this higher rate. The effect of this amendment is that any parent who is living with another person as their civil partner, or living with another person as if they were that person’s civil partner, will cease to be treated as a lone parent.