The Social Security (Invalid Care Allowance) Regulations 1976

Made: 15th March 1976

Laid before Parliament: 22nd March 1976

Coming into Operation: 12th April 1976

The Secretary of State for Social Services, in exercise of the powers conferred upon her by sections 13(4), 37, 40(2), 49, 79(1), 80, 81(1), (2) and (6), 82(1), (5) and (6), 84(1) and (2), 85(1), 86(5) and 119(3) of the Social Security Act 1975, section 36(7) of the National Insurance Act 1965 as continued in force by regulation 2(2) of the Social Security (Graduated Retirement Benefit) Regulations 1975[^f00001], and of all other powers enabling her in that behalf, and after reference to the National Insurance Advisory Committee, hereby makes the following regulations:

PART I — GENERAL

Citation and commencement

1

These regulations may be cited as the Social Security (Invalid Care Allowance) Regulations 1976 and shall come into operation on 12th April 1976.

Interpretation

2

• (1) In these Regulations, “the Contributions and Benefits Act" means the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 .

• (2) Any reference in these regulations to any provision made by or contained in any enactment or instrument shall, except in so far as the context otherwise requires, be construed as a reference to that provision as amended or extended by any enactment or instrument and as including a reference to any provision which may re-enact or replace, it with or without modification.

• (3) The rules for the construction of Acts of Parliament contained in the Interpretation Act 1889 shall apply for the purposes of the interpretation of these regulations as they apply for the purposes of the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.

PART II — MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS RELATING TO CARER'S ALLOWANCE

Prescribed payments out of public funds which constitute the persons in respect of whom they are payable as severely disabled persons

3

• (1) For the purposes of section 70 of the Contributions and Benefits Act (carer’s allowance) the prescribed payments out of public funds which constitute the persons in respect of whom they are payable as severely disabled persons are—

• (a) a payment under section 104 of the Contributions and Benefits Act (increase of disablement pension where constant attendance needed);

• (b) a payment such as is referred to in section 7(3)(b) of the Industrial Injuries and Diseases (Old Cases) Act 1975 (increase of an allowance under that Act where the person in respect of whom that allowance is payable requires constant attendance as a result of his disablement);

• (c) a payment under regulation 44 of the Social Security (Industrial Injuries) (Benefit) Regulations 1975[^f00002] in respect of the need of constant attendance;

• (d) a payment by way of an allowance in respect of constant attendance on account of disablement for which a person is in receipt of a war disablement pension,

being a payment the weekly rate of which is not less than the amount specified in paragraph 2(a) of Part V of Schedule 4 to the Contributions and Benefits Act.

• (2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(d) of this regulation “war disablement pension” means —

• (a) retired pay, pension or allowance granted in respect of disablement under powers conferred by or under the Ministry of Pensions Act 1916 the Air Force (Constitution) Act 1917, the Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act 1939, the Pensions (Navy, Army, Air Force and Mercantile Marine) Act 1939, the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, the Home Guard Act 1951 or the Ulster Defence Regiment Act 1969;

• (b) any retired pay or pension to which section 365(1) of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1970 applies, not being retired pay, pension or allowance to which sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph applies; or

• (c) any payment which the Secretary of State has certified can be accepted as being analogous to any such retired pay, pension or allowance as is referred to in sub-paragraph (a) or (b) of this paragraph.

Circumstances in which persons are or are not to be treated as engaged or regularly and substantially engaged in caring for severely disabled persons

4

• (1) Subject to paragraph (1A) of this regulation, a person shall be treated as engaged and as regularly and substantially engaged in caring for a severely disabled person on every day in a week if, and shall not be treated as engaged or regularly and substantially engaged in caring for a severely disabled person on any day in a week unless, as at that week he is, or is likely to be, engaged and regularly engaged for at least 35 hours a week in caring for that severely disabled person.

• (1A) A person who is caring for two or more severely disabled persons in a week shall be treated as engaged and regularly and substantially engaged in caring for a severely disabled person only where he is engaged and regularly engaged for at least 35 hours in that week in caring for any one severely disabled person, considered without reference to any other severely disabled person for whom he is caring.

• (2) A week in respect of which a person fails to satisfy the requirements of paragraph (1) of this regulation shall be treated as a week in respect of which that person satisfies those requirements if he establishes—

• (a) that he has only temporarily ceased to satisfy them; and

• (b) that (disregarding the provisions of this sub-paragraph) he has satisfied them for at least 14 weeks in the period of 26 weeks ending with that week and would have satisfied them for at least 22 weeks in that period but for the fact that either he or the severely disabled person for whom he has been caring was undergoing medical or other treatment as an in-patient in a hospital or similar institution.

Circumstances in which persons are to be regarded as receiving full-time education

5

• (1) For the purposes of section 70(3) of the Contributions and Benefits Act, a person shall be treated as receiving full-time education for any period during which he attends a course of education at a university, college, school or other educational establishment for twenty-one hours or more a week.

• (2) In calculating the hours of attendance under paragraph (1) of this regulation–

• (a) there shall be included the time spent receiving instruction or tuition, undertaking supervised study, examination or practical work or taking part in any exercise, experiment or project for which provision is made in the curriculum of the course; and

• (b) there shall be excluded any time occupied by meal breaks or spent on unsuper-vised study, whether undertaken on or off the premises of the educational establishment.

• (3) In determining the duration of a period of full-time education under paragraph (1) of this regulation, a person who has started on a course of education shall be treated as attending it for the usual number of hours per week throughout any vacation or any temporary interruption of his attendance until the end of the course or such earlier date as he abandons it or is dismissed from it.

Prescribed relationships between severely disabled persons and persons engaged in caring for them

6

For the purposes of section 70(1)(c) of the Contributions and Benefits Act (condition of entitlement to a carer’s allowance that the severely disabled person is either such relative of the person caring for him as may be prescribed or a person of any such other description as may be prescribed) where a severely disabled person is being cared for by another person, that disabled person shall be a prescribed person for the purposes of that section, whether he is related to the person caring for him or not.

manner of electing the person entitled to carer’s allowance in respect of a severely disabled person where more than one person would be entitledmanner of electing the person entitled to a carer’s allowance in respect of a severely disabled person for the purposes of section 70 of the Contributions and Benefits Act

7

• (1) For the purposes of the provision in section 70(7ZA) of the Contributions and Benefits Act which provides that where, apart from that section, two or more persons would have a relevant entitlement for the same day in respect of the same severely disabled person one of them only shall have that entitlement, being such one of them as they may jointly elect in the prescribed manner, an election shall be made by giving the Secretary of State a notice in writing signed by the persons who but for the said provision would have a relevant entitlement in respect of the same severely disabled person specifying one of them as the person to have that entitlement.

• (1A) For the purposes of section 70(7ZC) of the Contributions and Benefits Act which provides that where, apart from that section, one person (A) would have an entitlement mentioned in subsection (7ZB) and another person (B) would have an entitlement to carer’s allowance for the same day in respect of the same severely disabled person, A and B may jointly elect in the prescribed manner which of them shall have such entitlement, an election shall be made by giving the Scottish Ministers a notice in writing signed by both A and B specifying that B shall have entitlement to carer’s allowance and A shall not have an entitlement mentioned in subsection (7ZB).

• (1B) For the purposes of section 70(7ZE) of the Contributions and Benefits Act which provides that where, apart from that section, one person (A) has, or would have an entitlement to universal credit carer element and another person (B) would have an entitlement to carer’s allowance for the same day in respect of the same severely disabled person, A and B may jointly elect in the prescribed manner which of them shall have such entitlement, an election shall be made by giving the Scottish Ministers a notice in writing signed by both A and B specifying that B shall have an entitlement to carer’s allowance and A shall not have entitlement to universal credit carer element.

• (1C) For the purposes of section 70(7ZB) and (7ZC) of the Contributions and Benefits Act, which provides that where, apart from those subsections, one person (A) would have an entitlement mentioned in subsection (7ZB) and another person (B) would have a relevant entitlement for the same day in respect of the same severely disabled person, persons A and B may jointly elect in the prescribed manner that B shall have the relevant entitlement and that A shall not have an entitlement mentioned in subsection (7ZB), an election shall be made by giving the Secretary of State a notice in writing signed by both A and B specifying that B shall have the relevant entitlement and A shall not have an entitlement mentioned in subsection (7ZB).

• (2) An election under paragraphs (1), (1A) or (1B)paragraph (1) or (1C of this regulation shall not be effective to confer a relevant entitlement either for the day on which the election is made or for any earlier day if such day is one for which a carer’s allowance , carer support payment or the carer element of universal credit has been paid in respect of the severely disabled person in question and has not been repaid or recovered.

• (3) In paragraph (2) “the carer element of universal credit” means an amount included in an award of universal credit in respect of the fact that a person has regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person.

• (4) In paragraph (2), “carer support payment” means a payment made the Carer Support Payment component of Carer Support under the Carer’s Assistance (Carer Support Payment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023.

• (5) In paragraph (2), “carer support payment” means carer’s assistance the carer support payment component of carer support given in accordance with the Carer’s Assistance (Carer Support Payment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023.

Circumstances in which a person is or is not to be treated as gainfully employed

8

• (1) For the purposes of section 70(1)(b) of the Contributions and Benefits Act (condition of a person being entitled to a carer’s allowance for any day that he is not gainfully employed) a person shall not be treated as gainfully employed on any day in a week unless his earnings in the immediately preceding week have exceeded £204 and, subject to paragraph (2) of this regulation, shall be treated as gainfully employed on every day in a week if his earnings in the immediately preceding week have exceeded £204.

• (2) There shall be disregarded for the purposes of paragraph (1) above a person's earnings—

• (a) for any week which under paragraph (2) of regulation 4 of these regulations is treated as a week in which that person satisfies the requirements of paragraph (1) of that regulation; ...

• (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (c) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (3) The Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Regulations 1974[^f00003], as amended[^f00004], except regulations 5 to 7 thereof, shall apply in relation to invalid care allowance as they apply in relation to invalidity pension.

Conditions relating to residence and presence in Great Britain

9

• (1) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation and regulations 9A, 9B , 9C, 9D and 9E, the prescribed conditions for the purposes of section 70(4) of the Contributions and Benefits Act (person not to be entitled to a carer’s allowance unless he satisfies prescribed conditions as to residence or presence in Great Britain) in relation to any person in respect of any day shall be—

• (a) that he is habitually resident in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands; and

• (ia) he is not a person subject to immigration control within the meaning of section 115(9) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 or section 115 of that Act does not apply to him for the purposes of entitlement to a carer’s allowance by virtue of regulation 2 of the Social Security (Immigration and Asylum) Consequential Amendments Regulations 2000, and

• (b) that he is present in the relevant place; and

• (c) that he has been present in Great Britain for a period of, or periods amounting in the aggregate to, not less than 104 weeks in the 156 weeks immediately preceding that day.

• (1A) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (1B) For the purposes of this regulation, “the relevant place” is—

• (a) if the person is entitled to a carer’s allowance in accordance with article 4 of the Regulatory Reform (Carer’s Allowance) Order 2002 (transitional provision), Great Britain;

• (b) otherwise, England and Wales.

• (1C) In this regulation, “the relevant area” means—

• (a) for the purposes of paragraphs (1)(a) and (c), Great Britain;

• (b) for the purposes of paragraph (1)(b), the relevant place.

• (2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b) and (c) of this regulation, a person who is absent from Great Britain on any day shall be treated as being present in the relevant area—

• (a) if his absence is, and when it began was, for a temporary purpose and has not lasted for a continuous period exceeding 4 weeks; or

• (b) if his absence is temporary and for the specific purpose of caring for the severely disabled person who is also absent from Great Britain and where any of the following is payable in respect of that disabled person for that day—

• (i) attendance allowance;

• (ia) pension age disability payment given in accordance with the Disability Assistance for Older People (Scotland) Regulations 2024;

• (ii) the care component of disability living allowance at the highest or middle rate prescribed in accordance with section 72(3) of the Contributions and Benefits Act;

• (iia) the care component of Scottish adult disability living allowance at the highest or middle rate in accordance with regulation 6(4) of the Disability Assistance (Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 2025;

• (iia) the care component of Scottish adult disability living allowance at the highest or middle rate in accordance with regulation 6(4)(a) or (b) of the DisabilityAssistance (Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 2025;

• (iii) the daily living component of personal independence payment at the standard or enhanced rate prescribed in accordance with section 78(3) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012; ...

• (iiia) armed forces independence payment under the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces (Compensation Scheme) Order 2011; ...

• (iv) a payment specified in regulation 3(1) of these Regulations;

• (iva) the care component of child disability payment at the middle or highest rate in accordance with regulation 11(5) of the Disability Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) Regulations 2021; or

• (ivb) the daily living component of adult disability payment at the standard or enhanced rate in accordance with regulation 5 of the Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Scotland) Regulations 2022.

• (v) the care component of child disability payment at the middle or highest rate in accordance with regulation 11 of the Disability Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) Regulations 2021, ...

• (vi) the daily living component of adult disability payment at the standard or enhanced rate in accordance with regulation 5 of the Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Scotland) Regulations 2022 or,

• (vii) pension age disability payment in accordance with the Disability Assistance for Older People (Scotland) Regulations 2024

• (3) Notwithstanding that on any day a person is absent from Great Britain, he shall be treated as though he were—

• (a) habitually resident and present in the relevant area for the purposes of paragraphs (1)(a) to (c) if—

• (i) his absence is by reason only of the fact that on that day he is abroad in his capacity as a serving member of the forces and for this purpose “serving member of the forces” has the meaning given in regulation 1(2) of the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001 (“the 2001 Regulations”); or

• (ii) he is living with a person mentioned in sub-paragraph (a)(i) and is the spouse, civil partner, son, daughter, step-son, step-daughter, father, father-in-law, step-father, mother, mother-in-law or step-mother of that person; and

• (b) present in the relevant area for the purposes of paragraph (1)(b) and (c) if his absence is by reason only of the fact that on that day he is—

• (i) abroad in his capacity as an airman within the meaning of regulation 111 of the 2001 Regulations or a mariner within the meaning of regulation 115 of those Regulations; or