The Social Security (Income and Capital Disregards) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 make a narrow but important change to means-tested benefit rules. Made on 8 October 2026 and laid before Parliament on 9 October 2026, the instrument adds Church of England redress payments to the categories that must be left out when entitlement is assessed. In practical terms, the Regulations are designed to stop a payment from the Church of England redress scheme reducing a claimant's benefit award. According to the explanatory note, the purpose is to create new income and capital disregards across several existing schemes rather than to create a new benefit or alter the wider structure of entitlement.
The policy effect is straightforward. Where the rules would normally look at a person's income, capital or notional resources, a payment under the scheme administered by the redress body under the Abuse Redress Measure 2025 is to be ignored. That matters because means-tested benefits do not only examine money actually held. Some schemes also treat certain sums as notional income or notional capital, or convert capital into assumed income. The drafting in this instrument reaches those provisions as well, so the protection is not limited to one part of the calculation.
The amendments are spread across the State Pension Credit Regulations 2002, the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, the pension-age Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2008 and the Universal Credit Regulations 2013. In Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and ESA, the definition of Church of England redress payment is inserted directly into the interpretation provisions. The instrument then threads that definition through the detailed machinery of each scheme. It amends provisions on housing costs, income from capital, income treated as capital, notional income, notional capital, non-dependant deductions and the schedules listing sums to be disregarded. For Universal Credit, the change is framed slightly differently: regulation 76(1A) is widened so that the redress scheme falls within the existing provision for special compensation schemes.
The drafting also places Church of England redress payments alongside categories that already receive similar protection. In several definitions and schedules, the new wording is added next to child abuse payments and Mother and Baby Scheme payments, showing that the Department for Work and Pensions is treating this redress in line with other recognised compensation or restorative payment schemes. For advisers and decision-makers, that alignment matters. It reduces the risk that a survivor receiving redress is treated differently simply because the payment comes through a newer scheme. The legislative approach is not to invent a separate calculation method, but to extend established disregard rules to one more defined payment type.
Regulation 1(2) sets the commencement date at 31 October 2026 or, if later, the day section 12 of the Abuse Redress Measure 2025 comes into force. That drafting avoids a gap between the operation of the redress scheme and the benefit rules that are meant to protect payments made under it. The Regulations extend to England and Wales and Scotland. That territorial point is relevant because the amended benefit regulations continue to apply across those jurisdictions, and the disregard needs to sit consistently within the existing social security framework rather than only in one part of Great Britain.
The procedural notes are brief but relevant. The instrument records that the Social Security Advisory Committee agreed the proposals did not need to be referred to it, and that organisations representing the authorities concerned were consulted on the Housing Benefit changes. Stephen Timms, Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, signed the Regulations on 8 October 2026. The explanatory note also says no full impact assessment has been produced because no, or no significant, effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is expected. The practical effect for claimants is nevertheless clear: if a person receives a payment under the Church of England redress scheme, that sum should not count against entitlement in the benefit calculations covered by this instrument. The change does not raise benefit rates or widen basic eligibility; it protects redress from being eroded through the means test.