Commentary Section 6 Account opening
40.Section 6 relates to the opening of accounts and gives the Treasury power to make regulations in relation to the opening and holding of accounts.
41.Subsection (1) states that a person who receives a notice of eligibility may apply to open a Saving Gateway account with an approved account provider.
42.Section 2(2)(a) of the Act, as described above, provides that a notice of eligibility will contain an expiry date. Subsection (2)(a) of section 6 specifies that an application to open an account must be made and accepted by the account provider no later than this expiry date. Subsections (2)(b) and (2)(c) provide that the application must also include a true declaration as prescribed in regulations, and must be made in accordance with regulations. Where an incorrect declaration is made, or an application for an account otherwise breaches the requirements of subsection (2), section 1(1)(c) of the Act, as described above, provides that the account will not be a Saving Gateway account. Where an incorrect declaration is made deliberately by a person seeking to open a Saving Gateway account, a penalty may also be charged under section 19(1), as described below.
43.Where an application meets the requirements of this section, the account provider is obliged to open a Saving Gateway account under subsection (3).
44.Subsection (4) provides that exceptions to this obligation to open an account may be set out in regulations. These exceptions may, for example, include situations in which an account provider believes that a notice of eligibility might not be genuine, or that the applicant may have provided incorrect information as part of their application to open an account.
45.Subsection (5) allows the Treasury to make regulations in relation to the holding and opening of Saving Gateway accounts. Regulations may prevent a person holding more than one Saving Gateway account at the same time; may specify a period after the end of a Saving Gateway account during which a person may not open another Saving Gateway account; and may prevent a person from opening more than a specified number of accounts in their lifetime, or from holding more than a specified number of Saving Gateway accounts until the end of their maturity periods. The Government intends to provide in regulations that no person may hold more than one Saving Gateway account during their lifetime, except in cases where an account has been closed within any ‘cooling-off period’ offered by the account provider.