Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety

THE HEALTH AND PERSONAL SOCIAL SERVICES (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1972

Notice is hereby given that the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Articles 36(6) and 99(5) of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972, as substituted by the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 and of all other powers enabling it in that behalf, made on 16th March 2004 a statutory rule entitled “The Health and Personal Social Services (Assessment of Resources)(Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004” (S.R. 2004 No. 121).

The regulations, which come into operation on 12th April 2004, amend the Health and Personal Social Services (Assessment of Resources) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993 (the principal regulations), under which Health and Social Services Boards assess the ability of residents, for whom accommodation in residential care and nursing homes has been provided or arranged, to pay for that accommodation.

The regulations provide that the capital limit, above which a resident is not entitled to be assessed as unable to pay for accommodation, is increased to £20,000. The upper and lower limits of a resident’s capital for the calculation of tariff income are also increased to £12,250 and £20,000 respectively. The regulations also make changes to capital and income disregards applied in the means test for residential and nursing home care arranged by the Health and Personal Social Services, and provide a new disregard for payments made by the Skipton Fund to people who have been infected with Hepatitis C by NHS blood products.

Copies of the regulations may be purchased from the Stationery Office Bookshop, 16 Arthur Street, Belfast BT1 4GD. ISBN 0 337 95453 4, £3.00.