The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment No.2) Regs (NI) 2022 - screening

Urgent Urgent legislation was made in March 2022 to ensure that certain cohorts of people coming here from Ukraine as a result of the conflict, are exempt from the habitual residence test (HRT) and the past presence test (PPT) to facilitate entitlement to social security benefits from their arrival. This included UK nationals and those with pre-existing UK immigration status, and anyone arriving here through the Home Office Ukraine family member scheme.However there was an unintentional omission in the Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022, which means that Irish nationals are not necessarily covered by the list of exempt individuals for the HRT and PPT. These Regulations made the necessary amendments to ensure that Irish nationals coming here from Ukraine are covered by the HRT and PPT exemptions, as was the original policy intention.