Commentary on provisions of Act Section 28: Power to create other new benefits
Under the Scotland Act 1998 if the area is one of devolved responsibility then the Scottish Parliament have full legislative competence to enact legislation in that area, including the provision of new benefits. However as Social Security remains reserved, the Scottish Government would be required to engage with the UK Government if they wished to create new benefits that strayed into the reservation under Section F1 in Part 2 of Schedule 5 to the 1998 Act.
	This section inserts Exception 10 into Section F1, giving the Scottish Parliament powers to create new benefits in areas of devolved responsibility.
	Any new benefits introduced by the Scottish Government must be funded from the Scottish Consolidated Fund. These new benefits will be administered by the Scottish Government and will not be part of the UK-wide welfare system.
	The power to create new benefits will not extend to pensions as the Smith Commission Report specifically states that all aspects of pensions should remain reserved. Similar to discretionary payments, new benefits created under this power cannot be used to simply offset a reduction, suspension or non-payability in a reserved benefit due to an individual's conduct (for example as a result of a sanction because of non-compliance with a work-related requirement).
	This exception will only apply to the social security schemes reservation and not to any other reservation in the 1998 Act.
	Section 28 will give the Scottish Parliament parallel legislative competence to that of the UK Parliament but not the power to amend UK legislation. The UK Parliament will still be able to legislate in all areas of welfare across Great Britain without the requirement of a legislative consent motion, except for those areas already devolved and those being devolved by other sections of this Act (for example, carers and disability benefits covered by section 22).