Section 2B makes further provision as to how the power in section 2A will be used. It provides that any decision by a personal adviser that a claimant has, without good cause, failed to take part in an interview, may be revised or appealed against – whether the adviser is from the Benefits Agency, the Employment Service or a local authority. It also provides that any personal adviser may actually revise another’s decision.
Subsection (1) enables the decisions and appeals procedures in Chapter II of Part I of the Social Security Act 1998 to apply in relation to any “relevant decisions” taken by personal advisers.
Subsection (2) sets out what these “relevant decisions” are – namely, decisions that someone has failed, without good cause, to take part in an interview required under section 2A.
Subsections (3) and (4) provide that all “relevant decisions” by personal advisers should be treated as having been made by the Secretary of State – even if the personal adviser is not a civil servant. The powers in the Social Security Act to revise or supsersede a decision will apply. Subsection (5) will enable all personal advisers to revise or supersede a previously-taken “relevant decision”.
Subsection (6) requires regulations to give a right of appeal, under section 12 of the Social Security Act, against any relevant decision.
This is intended to ensure that, in practice, all such decisions, whether made by a representative of the Secretary of State or otherwise, will be treated in the same way, with all appeals going to an independent appeals tribunal.
The subsection ensures that the right of appeal is against the personal adviser’s decision that the claimant had failed to take part in an interview, rather than the decision to stop or reduce benefit. It focuses on the one decision that causes a penalty to be imposed (which may potentially affect a number of benefits).
Subsection (8) extends the definition of “information relating to social security” to include information supplied as part of a work-focused interview (which might, for example, include such subjects as a person’s previous employment record and capacity to work). The intention is to ensure that information gathered about a client’s employability can be passed on to their personal adviser. The extended definition applies to:
	section 3 of the Social Security Act 1998 (which allows information relating to social security, child support or war pensions to be exchanged and used for any of those purposes); and
	section 72 of this Act, which provides a framework for the use or supply of the information that underpins a number of social security and employment-related activities, including the ONE service. See the commentary on section 72 for further details.
Commentary Commentary Supplementary provisions