The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016
Regulation 2 substitutes a new version of regulation 2(1) of the Discretionary Financial Assistance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 (S.R. 2001 No. 216). The substituted regulation clarifies the structure of the previous regulation and specifies that all tenants, regardless of tenure type, may be eligible for a discretionary housing payment if the amount of housing benefit which they are entitled to is less than it would have been, due to the removal of the family premium from the Housing Benefit applicable amount, and they are deemed to require additional financial assistance in order to meet housing costs. As a result of these changes, the definition of “registered housing association” in regulation 1(2) is no longer required and is therefore omitted.