Social Security Act 1973

8 (1) Provision may be made by regulations as to the time and manner of payment of benefit, and as to the information and evidence to be furnished by beneficiaries when applying for payment.

(2) Regulations made under this paragraph as to the time of payment of benefit may provide—

(a) notwithstanding anything in this Act, for adjusting the commencement and termination of benefit, or of changes in the rate of benefit, so that (except in the case of unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, invalidity benefit and a maternity allowance) payments shall not be made in respect of periods of less than a week or at different rates for different parts of a week ;

(b) for extinguishing the right to payment of any sum by way of benefit if payment is not obtained within a prescribed period, not being less than 12 months, from the date on which the right is to be treated under the regulations as having arisen.

(3) Regulations may also provide—

(a) for enabling a person to be appointed to exercise, on behalf of a claimant or beneficiary who is a child or who may be or become unable for the time being to act, any right or power which the claimant or beneficiary may be entitled to exercise under this Act, and for authorising a person so appointed to receive and deal with any sum payable by way of benefit, on behalf of the claimant or beneficiary ;

(b) in connection with the death of any person, for enabling a claim for benefit to be made or proceeded with in his name, for authorising payment or distribution of benefit to or amongst persons claiming as his personal representatives, legatees, next of kin or creditors (or, in cases of illegitimacy of deceased persons, to or amongst others) and for dispensing with strict proof of the title of persons so claiming.

(4) Regulations under sub-paragraph (3)(b) above may make provision with respect to claims for, and the payment of, death grant as if it were a benefit due to the deceased at his death and as if the reference in that sub-paragraph to creditors included a reference to any person who gives an undertaking in writing to pay the whole or part of the deceased's funeral expenses; and for the purposes of that sub-paragraph the expression " next of kin " shall be construed as referring—

(a) in England and Wales, to persons who would take beneficially on an intestacy;

(b) in Scotland, to the persons entitled to the moveable estate of the deceased on intestacy.

(5) Regulations may make provision for calculating the amounts payable by way of any benefit according to a prescribed scale, or otherwise adjusting them so as to avoid fractional amounts or facilitate computation.