UK Offence Report

Change of circumstances

regulation 42(3) of The Welfare Supplementary Payment (Universal Credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

3 For the purposes of paragraph (2), it is reasonable to expect the person to do so if failure to inform would constitute an offence under sections 105A(1A) to (1G) and 106(1A) to (1F) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (offences relating to obtaining benefits).

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
failing to do something the instrument requires
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 42(3)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Not doing what the provision requires under the Welfare Supplementary Payment (Universal Credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
19 March 2025
In force from
Not determined
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations make further provision for welfare supplementary payments. These payments are designed to mitigate the impact of the Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/2006 (N.I. 1)) and the Welfare Reform and Work (Northern Ireland) Order 2016 (S.I. 2016/999 (N.I. 1)) referred to in “A Fresh Start: the Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan”. These Regulations make provision to take account of the introduction of universal credit. Part 1 is technical and provides for citation and commencement. Part 2 amends some of the existing Regulations to make provision for the case of a person who becomes entitled to universal credit at a time when the person is already receiving a welfare supplementary payment which is linked to another benefit. Chapter 1 amends the provisions on the application of the benefit cap, contributory employment and support allowance, carer’s allowance, carer premium and disability-related premium to ensure that the person will continue to receive the welfare supplementary payment after becoming entitled to universal credit. Chapter 1 also makes provision for the recovery of overpayments of welfare supplementary payment made in consequence of the application of the social sector size criteria. Chapter 2 enables the Department to recover overpayments of welfare supplementary payment where a person is entitled to universal credit. The Department will be able to recover overpayments by deductions from future welfare supplementary payments or from benefits, but it will not be able to do so from the person’s earnings. Part 3 makes provision for there to be new welfare supplementary payments where a person is entitled to universal credit but is subsequently affected by a change in that entitlement. Chapter 2 applies where the person is affected by the application of the benefit cap. Chapter 3 applies where the person is affected by the loss of the carer element of universal credit. Chapter 4 applies where the person is affected by time-limiting of contributory employment and support allowance. Chapter 5 makes general provision in relation to the new welfare supplementary payments to ensure a consistent approach with that taken on the existing payments. Regulation 43, for example, applies the existing procedures for the recovery of overpayments to the new payments.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.88.

Basis
the provision says the conduct “is an offence”; the provision says the conduct “constitutes an offence”
Confidence
0.88 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source