20.This section sets out when an individual is an eligible person for the purposes of this Act. Individuals who are entitled to certain qualifying benefits will automatically be issued with a notice of eligibility, as will those individuals who are entitled to certain tax credits and satisfy further conditions to be set out in regulations. Section 3 specifies the qualifying benefits and tax credits, sets out a further eligibility condition for individuals who are entitled to a carer’s allowance, and makes provision for further conditions relating to eligibility to be set out in regulations.
21.Subsection (1) specifies two conditions that a person must satisfy in order to be an eligible person. Subsection (1)(a) provides that, to be eligible, a person must be entitled to one or more of the benefits or tax credits listed in subsection (2). Subsection (1)(b) sets out that an eligible person must also have a connection with the United Kingdom of a kind set out in regulations. The Government intends to provide in regulations that to be eligible for a Saving Gateway account, a person must be ‘ordinarily resident’ in the United Kingdom, or must be treated as such under rules set down within regulations.
22.Subsection (2) lists the qualifying benefits and tax credits. In order to be eligible for the Saving Gateway, a person must be entitled to one or more of these benefits or tax credits. The qualifying benefits and tax credits are:
income support;
employment and support allowance;
jobseeker's allowance;
incapacity benefit;
severe disablement allowance;
a carer’s allowance (subject to the conditions set out in subsection (4));
child tax credit (subject to regulations made under subsection (5)); and
working tax credit (subject to regulations made under subsection (5)).
23.For jobseeker’s allowance and employment and support allowance, both income-based and contribution-based entitlement will lead to eligibility for the Saving Gateway.
24.Subsection (3) sets out that where a claim is made to a qualifying benefit or tax credit by two people, such as would happen, for example, where a joint claim to child tax credit is made, both parties to the claim may be eligible for a Saving Gateway account.
25.Subsection (4) imposes further conditions that must be met in order for entitlement to a carer’s allowance to lead to eligibility for the Saving Gateway. The effect of this subsection is that those people with an underlying entitlement to a carer’s allowance, to whom the allowance is not payable under the overlapping benefits rules set out in regulations made under section 73 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992(7), will not be eligible for a Saving Gateway account by virtue of that entitlement. Such people may however be eligible for the Saving Gateway if they are entitled to one or more of the other qualifying benefits or tax credits listed at subsection (2).
26.Subsections (5) and (6) provide for regulations to be made limiting the circumstances in which a person entitled to child tax credit or working tax credit is eligible for a Saving Gateway account. Regulations made under these subsections may include the imposition of an income threshold above which tax credit recipients are not eligible for Saving Gateway accounts, or provisions in relation to individuals whose entitlement to tax credits arises because they are also entitled to a prescribed social security benefit. Regulations made under subsection (5) may make provision similar to any provision of the Tax Credits Act 2002(8) or to any regulations made under that Act, with or without modifications. The Government intends to impose an annual income threshold, above which tax credit recipients are not eligible for Saving Gateway accounts, and to align this with the child tax credit threshold which, for the tax year 2009-10, has been set at £16,040.
27.Subsection (7) enables the list of qualifying benefits and tax credits set out in subsection (2) to be amended by order.
28.Subsection (8) enables an order under subsection (7) to make consequential amendments to section 3.
(c. 4). See the Social Security (Overlapping Benefits) Regulations 1979 (S.I. 1979/597, as amended)
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