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3.3 Term of Relief to be Approved
In all relief cases ie Widow/Widower Advances and Instalment Relief to Widows/Widowers and others, the amount and term of the advance or the amount and term of the reduced instalment approved is to be specified on the certificate. The general principles contained in Entitlement General Orders 7.1 provide that relief granted shall be reviewed at twelve monthly intervals. In this regard care needs to be exercised in setting the term of the relief approved initially, as there is no legislative provision which enables a review to be conducted within the approval period nor to provide a number of widow/widower advances without corresponding applications.
For instalment relief cases, a term of 12 months would be normally considered appropriate unless evidence suggests a longer term to be more practical in the circumstances. In any case, a relief term should not exceed 2 years.
For cases of widows'/widowers' advances for recurring expenses such as rates, consideration should be given to paying the annual amount by one payment rather than paying four quarterly instalments, an option which is often available. This may enable the widow/widower to take advantage of any discounts applicable to one-time payments and reduce the paperwork on the client, DSH and the Bank in processing four applications, certificates and payments within twelve months. There is no legislative provision to issue a certificate for recurring expenses without a corresponding application.
The term for widow/widower advances would normally be set as the remainder of the term of the current advance although Sub-section 36(1)(b)(ii) provides that a longer term may be determined if appropriate.