Legislation – The Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement 19, 22, 23 and 24 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions (Modification)) Order 2016

This Order modifies a series of prior Orders (the “prior commencement Orders”, defined below) bringing into force provisions of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (c. 5) (“the Act”) relating to universal credit (“UC”) and the abolition of income-related employment and support allowance and income-based jobseeker’s allowance. Those prior commencement Orders are:

Articles 3 and 4 of each of the prior commencement Orders brought into force respectively provisions relating to UC in Part 1 of the Act (“the UC provisions”), as set out in Schedule 2 to the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 9 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions and Commencement No. 8 and Savings and Transitional Provisions (Amendment)) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/983 (C. 41) (“the No. 9 Order”)), and provisions of the Act relating to the abolition of income-related employment and support allowance and income-based jobseeker’s allowance (“the amending provisions”).

The modifications to the provisions of articles 3(2) and 4(2) of the prior commencement Orders by paragraph (2) of articles 3 to 12 of this Order remove the restrictions on claiming UC applied in the prior commencement Orders (“the gateway conditions”, set out in Schedule 5 to the No. 9 Order) so that they do not apply to the specified provisions of articles 3(2) and 4(2) of the prior commencement Orders for the coming into force of the UC provisions and the amending provisions in the postcode districts and part-districts specified.

Articles 3 to 12 of this Order apply where claims are made (as the case may be) for universal credit, an employment and support allowance or a jobseeker’s allowance on or after: 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th October 2016; 2nd, 9th, 23rd and 30th November 2016; 7th and 14th December 2016, respectively; and by reference to residence in one of the designated postcodes in the corresponding Part of the Schedule to this Order. See article 2(2) for the definition of these postcodes.

Articles 13 to 15 of this Order make consequential modifications to a number of similar provisions in each of the prior commencement Orders to remove references to meeting the gateway conditions. By virtue of the gateway conditions no longer applying, claims by couples will become possible for the first time in certain of the designated postcodes, those for which UC was commenced under the No. 22 Order and the No. 24 Order for single UC claimants only. The consequential modifications by articles 14 and 15 to those Orders also allow for claims by couples.

Article 16 modifies article 7 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 23 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/634 (C. 32)) such that, save in specified cases, a person may not make a claim for housing benefit, income support or a tax credit on any date where, if that person made a claim for UC on that date, the UC provisions would come into force by virtue of any of the sub-paragraphs of article 3(2) of the prior commencement Orders modified by paragraph (2) of articles 3 to 12 of this Order.

Article 17 makes a technical amendment to article 9(2)(e) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 13, 14, 16, 19, 22, 23 and 24 and Transitional and Transitory Provisions (Modification)) Order 2016 (S.I. 2016/596 (C. 41)). This applies the consequential modification made by that article for the purposes of the amending provisions modified by article 5(2)(b) and (c) of that Order.