A payment on account of any allowance to which this section applies shall not be treated as income for any purposes of the Income Tax Acts.

This section applies to any allowance paid since the beginning of 1977 by the Secretary of State or the Department of Manpower Services for Northern Ireland under any scheme of the kind described in the [1977 c. 8.] Job Release Act 1977, being a scheme which provides for the payment of allowances for periods beginning not earlier than one year before the date on which the recipient attains pensionable age as defined in that Act.