Legal background
- The means-tested additional payments and the disability additional payments are new social security payments created by this legislation. Eligibility for these additional payments depends on eligibility for an existing means-tested or disability benefit, respectively, as determined under the legislation for the relevant qualifying benefit. Further details of the relevant legislation for the qualifying benefits are set out in the section commentary as required. The existing legislation for the qualifying benefits remains unchanged.
- These payments will be delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HMRC but this will require data sharing in order to prevent duplication of payments or avoid people missing out on payments. In addition, data sharing with the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive will be needed in order to ensure these payments are delivered to recipients there. There will be a reliance on DWP and HMRC cooperating to exercise their functions in relation to additional payments through existing data sharing provisions. This Act does apply some modifications to those provisions as required to enable data sharing for the purpose of delivering these new payments. Modifications to section 127 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 enable data sharing between HMRC and DWP. Modifications to section 3 of the Social Security Act 1998 allow data sharing between HMRC, DWP, MoD and the Department for Communities. Section 34 of the Scotland Act 2016 is modified to allow data sharing between DWP and the Scottish Ministers.
- These additional payments are being legislated for as a new benefit reserved in Great Britain. Social security is reserved in Scotland, but there are some exceptions to this reservation which are set out in Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998. Some of the benefits which enable the claimant to qualify to receive these additional payments are devolved in Scotland since they are covered by an exception. However, the additional payments themselves are not devolved. The additional payments are a reserved matter as they are payments to respond to the increases in cost of living and do not fall within any of the exceptions to the reservation of social security in Scotland.
- Social security is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland (except for tax credits which is not a social security benefit) but in the absence of a fully functional Northern Ireland Assembly, Parliament will legislate for Northern Ireland to provide parity of availability to these additional payments for means-tested and disability benefit recipients in Northern Ireland. Tax credits are an excepted matter in Northern Ireland and a reserved matter in Scotland and Wales. This means the UK government is responsible for tax credits for the whole of the UK.
