Benefit Cap (Annual Limit) (Amendment No 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 come into force

The Benefit Cap (Annual Limit) (Amendment No 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 came into force in September 2023, according to the Law Centre NI Social Security Law and Practice Bulletin for Spring 2024¹. The regulations enabled increased benefit cap rates announced for April 2023 to continue in force in Northern Ireland¹.

The bulletin records the September 2023 commencement among its updates to Northern Ireland social security legislation¹. It does not set out the cap amounts themselves, the date in April 2023 from which the increased rates applied, or the number of households affected. Those figures have not been reported.

The same bulletin reports that, after the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly in February 2024, the Minister gave approval for the Benefit Cap (Annual Limit) (Amendment No 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 to be revoked and for subsequent regulations to be made¹.

The bulletin does not name the subsequent regulations, give the date on which the revocation took effect, or state what they change about the cap. It also does not say whether the April 2023 rates continued unchanged in the meantime.

Why it matters for households

The cap limits the total amount of certain benefits a household can receive. The September 2023 regulations kept the higher rates set from April 2023 in place, so households in Northern Ireland subject to the cap were assessed against those increased limits rather than the previous ones¹. The bulletin does not identify which benefits count towards the cap, the level of the limits, or how many households are affected.

The bulletin also does not say what the revocation approved in February 2024 means in practice for capped households, or whether any household's entitlement changed as a result. The wider benefits figures published alongside it show the income backdrop: in 2022/23, 18% of individuals in Northern Ireland (about 349,000 people) were estimated to be living in relative poverty, up from 16% in 2021/22, and median household income in Northern Ireland fell by 5% compared with a 1% fall across the UK¹.

What happens next

The bulletin states that the Minister approved the revocation of the September 2023 regulations and the making of subsequent regulations after the Assembly's restoration in February 2024¹. It does not give commencement dates for those subsequent regulations, nor say when the revocation itself takes effect. No further detail on the replacement regulations has been reported.

The bulletin also notes that the Department for Communities published the Northern Ireland Poverty and Income Inequality Report (2022-2023), and that the Northern Ireland Audit Office published its report on child poverty on 11 March 2024¹. How rates rise each April, including uprating and past freezes, is covered in our guide to annual increases.