Commentary on provisions of Act Section 23: Benefits for maternity, funeral and heating expenses
This section amends Section F1 (social security schemes) in Part 2 of Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998, to give the Scottish Parliament legislative competence over provision of financial or other assistance for the purposes of meeting or reducing maternity expenses, funeral expenses and expenses for heating incurred due to cold weather.
	The Scottish Parliament will have legislative competence to make provision for the type of payments which are currently the subject matter of the regulated Social Fund. The UK Government currently makes such provision through the Sure Start Maternity Grant, Funeral Payment, Cold Weather Payment and Winter Fuel Payment. The Scottish Parliament will have legislative competence to make provision for payments or other assistance and to determine conditions of entitlement or to replace these types of benefits entirely.
	The current social security schemes reservation explicitly provides, through an exclusion from the exceptions, that the subject matter of both section 138 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (payments out of the social fund) and section 69 of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 (discretionary housing payments) is reserved. Subsection (3) amends the current social security schemes reservation to remove this provision. Section 25 makes specific provision for the transfer of competence in relation to discretionary housing payments).
	Subsection (3) also inserts new exclusions from the exceptions to the social security schemes reservation. Exclusions (a) and (b) provide that the National Insurance Fund and the Social Fund remain reserved. That is, the Scottish Parliament do not have competence over the funds themselves. Exclusion (c) ensures that the provision of Budgeting Loans out of the Social Fund remains reserved.
	Subsection (4) removes interpretation provisions that are no longer needed.
	Subsection (5) amends section 138 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 to ensure that executive competence to make payments for Sure Start Maternity Grants, Funeral Payments, Cold Weather Payments and Winter Fuel Payments will transfer to the Scottish Ministers along with the transfer of legislative competence over the subject matter of these benefits. The social fund itself will remain reserved. It also enables the Scottish Ministers to make use of the regulation-making powers in the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.
	Paragraph (4C) of the text inserted by subsection (5) extends the scope of the power in section 30(3) of the Scotland Act 1998 to enable the UK and Scottish Parliaments to specify which functions under section 138 SSCBA are exercisable ‘in or as regards Scotland.’