Statutory Instrument 2026/1072, the Social Security (Income and Capital Disregards) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, was made on 8 October 2026 and laid before Parliament on 9 October 2026. The instrument updates benefits rules so that Church of England redress payments are disregarded when entitlement is calculated. In practical terms, the measure is intended to prevent a payment made under the Abuse Redress Measure 2025 from reducing means-tested support. The Regulations do not create the redress scheme itself. They deal with how payments from that scheme are treated once they reach the social security system.
The amendments apply across several benefit frameworks rather than a single scheme. The statutory instrument changes the State Pension Credit Regulations 2002, the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, the Housing Benefit rules for people who have reached the qualifying age for Pension Credit, the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2008 and the Universal Credit Regulations 2013. That breadth matters because income and capital rules are not uniform across the system. By amending each set of regulations directly, the Department for Work and Pensions has given decision-makers a clear legal basis for disregarding Church of England redress payments in the benefits covered by the instrument.
Commencement is tied to two dates. The Regulations come into force on 31 October 2026 or, if later, on the day section 12 of the Abuse Redress Measure 2025 comes into force. The instrument extends to England and Wales and Scotland. For administrators and advisers, the operative date is therefore the later of those two events. That drafting links the benefits changes to the underlying redress legislation, so the disregard takes effect only once the relevant part of the 2025 Measure is in force.
The drafting follows an established social security approach. A new definition of 'Church of England Redress payment' is inserted into the relevant regulations, and related provisions are then amended so the payment is excluded from financial assessment. Several references to a 'qualifying person' are also widened so the new payment sits alongside other protected redress awards already recognised in benefits law. Across the covered schemes, the amendments reach further than a simple capital disregard. They also touch provisions dealing with income from capital, income treated as capital, notional income, notional capital, housing costs and non-dependant deductions where those rules interact with disregarded payments.
For Housing Benefit and Pension Credit, the effect is to make sure the redress payment is not drawn into the standard means test through existing income and capital provisions. The Employment and Support Allowance amendments take a similar route, inserting the new payment into the schedules and operative rules that govern financial assessment under the 2008 Regulations. Universal Credit is amended in a narrower form but with the same practical result. Regulation 76(1A) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013, which lists special compensation and similar schemes, is expanded to include the scheme administered under the Abuse Redress Measure 2025. That places Church of England redress within Universal Credit's existing disregard structure.
For claimants, the policy effect is straightforward. A Church of England redress payment should not be treated as ordinary income or savings for the purposes of the amended rules. That reduces the risk that a survivor who receives redress will see benefit entitlement reduced purely because compensation has been paid. The instrument is limited in scope. It does not determine who qualifies for redress, how much a payment should be, or how the redress body will operate. Those questions sit with the Abuse Redress Measure 2025 and the scheme established under it. The function here is to align benefits law with that separate redress framework.
The procedural points are set out on the face of the Regulations. Under section 173(1)(b) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992, the Social Security Advisory Committee agreed that the proposals did not need to be referred to it. For the Housing Benefit amendments, the Secretary of State also consulted organisations appearing to be representative of the authorities concerned, as required by section 176(1)(a) of the same Act. Stephen Timms, Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, signed the instrument on 8 October 2026. The explanatory note says no full impact assessment has been produced because no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is expected. From a legislative drafting perspective, the Regulations bring Church of England redress into line with the treatment already given to other protected redress and compensation payments across the benefits system.