Social Welfare Act 2003

Supplementary welfare allowance — amendment to conditions of entitlement.

12.—(1) Section 179 (as amended by section 13 of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2003 ) of the Principal Act is amended in subsection (4)—

(a) in paragraph (a)(i) by deleting “or”,

(b) in paragraph (a)(ii)(IV) by substituting “1935, or” for “1935.”,

(c) in paragraph (a), after subparagraph (ii) by inserting the following:

“(iii) during any period that person, or his or her spouse, is engaged in remunerative full-time work.”,

and

(d) by inserting after subsection (4) the following:

“(5) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) and subject to subsection (6), regulations under subsection (1) may provide for the payment of a supplement towards the amount of mortgage interest payable by a person in respect of his or her residence.

(6) A person shall not be entitled to a supplement referred to in subsection (5), during any period, where that person or his or her spouse, is engaged in remunerative full-time work.”.

(2)  (a) Subject to paragraph (b) of this subsection, paragraphs (c) and (d) of subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to a person who is entitled to or in receipt of any payment to which those paragraphs refer immediately before the coming into operation of this subsection in relation to that payment.

(b) Where after the coming into operation of paragraph (a) of this subsection, a person referred to in that paragraph ceases to be entitled to or in receipt of any payments to which those amendments refer, the said paragraph shall no longer apply to that person.

(3) For the purposes of this section, “spouse” means—

(a) each person of a married couple who are living together, or

(b) a man and woman who are not married to each other but are cohabiting as husband and wife.

(4) This section comes into operation on 1 January 2004.