Section 1 Saving Gateway accounts
11.This section defines what is meant by a “Saving Gateway account” for the purposes of the Act.
12.Subsection (1) sets out four characteristics of a Saving Gateway account:
that it is held by a person who has received a notice of eligibility and who was eligible at the relevant date (which is defined in subsection (3)). Notices of eligibility will be issued by HMRC under the powers given in section 2;
that the account satisfies requirements imposed by or under the Act;
that the account has been properly opened; and
that the account has not ceased to be a Saving Gateway account. The circumstances in which an account ceases to be a Saving Gateway account will be set out in regulations made under section 10.
13.Subsection (2) states that Saving Gateway accounts are under the management of the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (“the Commissioners”). The conferring of a managerial discretion on the Commissioners is a standard feature of HMRC legislation, and that of its predecessor departments, the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise.
14.In older fiscal legislation, the managerial discretion conferred on HMRC’s predecessor departments has been denoted by the term “care and management”. This Act uses the more modern term of “management”. The use of the term “management” is not intended to introduce a concept different from that found in older legislation.
15.Subsection (3) defines the “relevant date” for the purposes of subsection 1(a). The relevant date is either the date on which a notice of eligibility is issued, or, if a person has ceased to be eligible on that date, the Commissioners may determine that an earlier date is to be treated as the relevant date under subsection (3)(b).
16.This is intended to provide for situations where a person’s claim to one of the benefits or tax credits listed in section 3(2) ends before HMRC issues the notice of eligibility. HMRC will receive information concerning eligibility on a periodic basis from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Social Development (DSD). There might be instances in which a person’s claim to benefit ceases before DWP or DSD notify HMRC of that person’s entitlement, or between this notification and the issue of a notice of eligibility by HMRC.
