Housing (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1972

PART II Persons in Receipt of Supplementary Benefit

17 (1) The Secretary of State may give directions, either generally or in any particular case, as to the application of Part II of this Act (including the last preceding Schedule and this Schedule) to persons who may be entitled to receive supplementary benefit or are or have been in receipt of such benefit, and to persons whose income or resources have been or may be aggregated for the purposes of this Act, or of the [1966 c. 20.] Ministry of Social Security Act 1966, with those of persons who may be entitled to receive supplementary benefit or are or have been in receipt of such benefit.

(2) Directions under this paragraph may in particular make provision as to—

(a) the beginning or ending of any rebate or allowance period;

(b) the procedures to be adopted in cases where a person is or may be entitled both to a rent rebate or a rent allowance and to supplementary benefit, and the method of disposing of any application for rent rebate or rent allowance which is pending when a person becomes entitled to supplementary benefit; and

(c) the method of dealing with cases where it is difficult to ascertain whether a person has been in receipt of supplementary benefit for more than eight weeks.

(3) Any direction under this paragraph shall have effect notwithstanding anything in Part I of this Schedule.

18 (1) An authority shall not, under this Schedule, require the tenant, as respects any period for which he is in receipt of supplementary benefit, to give any information to the authority, other than such information as may for the time being be specified for the purposes of this paragraph by any direction given by the Secretary of State, either generally or in any particular case.

(2) An authority shall afford to the Secretary of State such information in their possession as he may require to give effect to the [1966 c. 20.] Ministry of Social Security Act 1966 as amended by this Act, and the Secretary of State and the Supplementary Benefits Commission shall afford to every authority such information concerning claims for, and payments of, supplementary benefit as the authority may require to give effect to Schedule 2 to this Act and this Schedule.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of sub-paragraph (2) above, where the authority are to ascertain the amounts specified in paragraph 20(2) of Schedule 2 to this Act for a person who is in receipt of supplementary benefit, whether in the first eight weeks or later (or for a person whose income is to be aggregated with that of a person in receipt of supplementary benefit) it shall be the duty of the Commission to notify the authority of those amounts as estimated or determined by the Commission and to supply the authority with such particulars of the resources of the tenant and any spouse as will enable the authority to ascertain the weekly income of the tenant and any spouse.

(4) An authority and the Secretary of State may from time to time enter into any arrangements for purposes of administrative convenience which, without affecting the total relief available to any tenant—

(a) authorise the authority to grant a rebate or allowance greater than, or less than, the amount required by or under the authority's scheme, or to grant, or refrain from granting, a rebate or allowance where the provisions of the scheme provide otherwise, and

(b) require the authority to pay to the Secretary of State such amount, estimated in a manner determined by the arrangements, as reflects any liability to give relief to the tenant transferred by the arrangements from the authority to the Secretary of State,

and where any arrangements within paragraph (a) above were made in the period from the beginning of the year 1972-73 until the coming into force of this Act, the authority shall have power to pay to the Secretary of State such amount in respect of any liability to give relief to the tenant transferred by the arrangements to the Secretary of State as may be determined by them on a formula agreed with the Secretary of State.

(5) Without prejudice to paragraph 17 above, the Secretary of State may give directions to authorities in general or any individual authority or description of authority requiring them in such cases and circumstances as may be specified in the direction to grant a rebate or allowance greater than, or less than, the amount required by or under their scheme, or to grant, or refrain from granting, a rebate or allowance where the provisions of the scheme provide otherwise, and to pay to the Secretary of State such amount, to be estimated in such manner as may be so specified, as reflects any liability to give relief to the authority's tenants which is transferred in accordance with the directions from the authority to the Secretary of State.

(6) Any reference in this Act to the amount of rebates or allowances granted by an authority for a year or other period shall include an amount which in the opinion of the Secretary of State represents the rebates or allowances which would have been granted but for any arrangements under sub-paragraph (4) or directions under sub-paragraph (5) above, estimated in such manner as the Secretary of State may direct; and a corresponding adjustment shall be made in arriving at the amount to be treated for any purpose of this Act as an authority's standard amount of rent rebates or rent allowances.