Final provisions
Section 19: Regulations and orders
135.Section 19 contains supplementary provision relating to the regulation and order making powers conferred by the Act.
136.It applies to Pension Credit the usual regulation-making powers provided for social security benefits by subsections (1), (2) to (5) and (10) of section 175 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992. These provide that:
regulations and orders shall be made by the Secretary of State;
orders or regulations shall be made by statutory instruments;
the power may be exercised in relation to all cases, all cases subject to specified exceptions or only for specified cases;
the power may be exercised fully or not, make the same provision for all cases or not, and specify conditions or not;
regulations may be made for such incidental, consequential or transitional provision as appear to be suitable;
the power to make regulations or an order includes power to provide for a person to exercise discretion when dealing with any matter.
137.Subsection (2) provides for the first regulations made under specified provisions of the Act to be subject to the approval of each House of Parliament. This includes regulations that:
set the amounts to be paid as the guarantee credit (as defined in section 2);
set the amount of the standard minimum guarantee (as defined in section 2);
define the cases in which a prescribed amount may be substituted for the standard minimum guarantee;
set the percentage of the excess qualifying income used to calculate the savings credit;
set the percentage of the excess income used to calculate the savings credit;
prescribe cases in which a prescribed higher amount may be substituted for the appropriate minimum guarantee when calculating the savings credit;
define the income which will enable a person to qualify for a savings credit;
prescribe the amount of the savings credit threshold;
define the minimum amount payable;
provide for the treatment of people who are polygamously married;
provide for the treatment of income and capital in the calculation of Pension Credit.
138.Subsection (3) provides that any regulations under the Act which are not subject to the "draft affirmative" Parliamentary procedure described in subsection (2) are subject to the Parliamentary "negative resolution" procedure.
