Commentary on Sections Part 5: Social security: General Section 109: Recovery of fines etc by deductions from employment and support allowance
562.The introduction of ESA by the WRA 2007 required consequential amendments to other legislation. Section 109 corrects an error in those consequential amendments relating to deductions from benefit for the payment of fines. As a result of the error, secondary legislation which allowed deductions for fines from both the income-related and contributory elements of ESA was not supported by the primary legislation, which allowed deductions from the income-related element only. The effect of the section is to give retrospective legal authority to the secondary legislation.
563.Subsection (1) removes references in the Criminal Justice Act 1991 which allow deductions for fines to be taken from only the income-related element of ESA. Subsection (2) removes a corresponding reference in Schedule 3 to WRA 2007.
564.Subsection (3) provides that the repeals in subsections (1) and (2) have retrospective effect from 27 October 2008, the ESA implementation date.