{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-act-1975/section-81",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-act-1975/section-81.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/1975/14",
  "legislation_title": "Social Security Act 1975",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-act-1975",
  "path": "section/81",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "81",
  "heading": "Payment",
  "text": "(1) Provision may be made by regulations as to the time and manner of payment of benefit and as to the information and evidence to be furnished by beneficiaries when applying for payment.\n(2) Regulations under subsection (1) above as to the time of payment of benefit may provide—\n(a) for adjusting the commencement and termination of benefit, or of changes in the rate of benefit, so that (except in the case of the benefits listed in subsection (3) below) payments are not to be made in respect of periods of less than a week or at different rates for different parts of a week;\n(b) for extinguishing the right to payment of any sum by way of benefit if payment is not obtained within a prescribed period, not being less than 12 months, from the date on which the right is to be treated under the regulations as having arisen.\n(3) The benefits excepted from subsection (2) (a) above are—\nunemployment benefit,\nsickness benefit,\ninvalidity benefit,\na maternity allowance, and\ninjury benefit.\n(4) Regulations may provide—\n(a) for requiring beneficiaries—\n(i) to furnish to the prescribed person any information required for the determination of a question arising in connection with the award,\n(ii) to give notice to the prescribed person of any change of circumstances affecting the continuance of the right to benefit or its receipt;\n(b) for enabling a person to be appointed to exercise, on behalf of a claimant or beneficiary who is a child or who may be or become unable for the time being to act, any right or power which the claimant or beneficiary may be entitled to exercise under this Act;\n(c) for authorising a person so appointed to receive and deal with any sum payable by way of benefit, on behalf of the claimant or beneficiary;\n(d) as to the circumstances in which any benefit which is payable to one person may be paid to another on his behalf; and\n(e) in connection with a person's death—\n(i) for enabling a claim for benefit to be made or proceeded with in his name,\n(ii) for authorising payment or distribution of benefit to or amongst persons claiming as his personal representatives, legatees, next of kin or creditors (or, in cases of illegitimacy of deceased persons, to or amongst others), and\n(iii) for dispensing with strict proof of the title of persons so claiming.\n(5) In subsection (4)(e) above \" next of kin \" means—\n(a) in England and Wales, the persons who would take beneficially on an intestacy;\n(b) in Scotland, the persons entitled to the moveable estate of the deceased on intestacy ;\nand regulations under that paragraph may make provision with respect to claims for, and the payment of, a death grant as if it were a benefit due to the deceased at his death and as if the reference to creditors included a person who undertakes in writing to pay the whole or part of the deceased's funeral expenses.\n(6) Regulations may make provision for calculating the amounts payable by way of any benefit according to a prescribed scale, or otherwise adjusting them so as to avoid fractional amounts or facilitate computation.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1975/14/section/81",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T10:40:38.067895+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}