Welfare Reform Act 2007

Social fund E+W+S

54 Matters to which regard must be had in awarding budgeting loans E+W+S

In section 140(1A) of the Contributions and Benefits Act (principles for determining awards of budgeting loans)—

(a) in paragraph (b) (duty to have regard to criteria specified in paragraphs (b) to (e) of subsection (1)), for “(b) to (e)” substitute “ (b), (d) and (e) ”, and

(b) the words following paragraph (b) (which enable the Secretary of State to give directions about cases in which the applicant's personal circumstances would preclude the award of a budgeting loan) cease to have effect.

55 Allocations from Social Fund E+W+S

(1) Section 168 of the Administration Act (allocations from social fund) is amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (1) (duty of Secretary of State to allocate amounts for payments from the social fund such as are mentioned in section 138(1)(b) of the Contributions and Benefits Act), after “Act” insert “ (in this section referred to as “section 138(1)(b) payments”) ”.

(3) In subsection (3) (types of allocation that may be made)—

(a) for paragraph (a) substitute—

“(a) may be for all section 138(1)(b) payments or for any description of such payments;”;

(b) in paragraph (b) (power to allocate different amounts for different purposes), for “different purposes” substitute “ payments of different descriptions ”; and

(c) in paragraph (d) (additional allocations), omit the words from “to the same officer” to the end.

(4) After subsection (3) insert—

“(3A) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (3)(a), descriptions of section 138(1)(b) payments may, in particular, be framed by reference to—

(a) the purposes for which payments are made;

(b) the persons by whom payments are made (including where such persons are located);

(c) the persons to whom payments are made (including where such persons are located).”