Commentary on Sections Aggregation Section 7: Fixing of claimant’s retirement provision for assessed income period
103.Specifying an assessed income period has the effect of fixing, for that period, what is to be treated as an element of the claimant's retirement provision (see subsection (3)). Further elements of retirement provision acquired later in the assessed income period are simply disregarded (see subsection (5)). The claimant need not, therefore, report such a further element during the period.
104.Specifying a period also fixes the amount the claimant receives from each element of his retirement provision (the "assessed amount"), but those assessed amounts are liable to be adjusted in accordance with regulations (seesubsections (3) and (4)). The intention is that the regulations will provide for the amount of income from a pension or annuity to be deemed to increase from time to time.  This will be in line with the terms of a claimant's pension or annuity arrangements or, if these details cannot be supplied, in line with the uprating of social security benefits. The regulations will also provide for the rate of assumed income from capital to be treated as adjusted from time to time. In some cases, the assessed amount may be deemed to stay the same.
105.The amounts a claimant is deemed to receive and the amounts actually received may differ. If that works in the claimant's favour, he need not report it during the period. The point of subsection (3) is that a calculation based on deemed amounts is not to be treated as giving rise to an overpayment. If the difference works against the claimant, he may seek a new decision on the amount of his entitlement (see section 8(1)(a) and (b)).
106.None of the powers in the Act will affect the powers in section 9 of the Social Security Act 1998 which allow the revision of a decision.