The Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend various regulations made under the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (“the Order”).

The Child Support (Information, Evidence and Disclosure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 are amended to make provision for information to be given to enable the Department of Health and Social Services (“the Department”) to decide whether a court order for maintenance or a written maintenance agreement made before 5th April 1993 is in force and whether a person with care who has applied for a maintenance assessment has parental responsibility for the child in question (regulation 2).

The Child Support (Maintenance Assessment Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 are amended in the following respects—

(a) regulation 32 is amended to make provision for maintenance periods to coincide where more than one application for a maintenance assessment is being dealt with at the same time (regulation 3(5));

(b) Part IX is amended to provide that a case may be referred by the Department to a child support officer two weeks after notification of intention to refer, if the parent with care has not set out in writing that parent’s reasons for contending that harm or undue distress might result from compliance with a requirement under Article 9 of the Order. It is also amended to allow for a further reduced benefit direction to be issued on the expiry of the previous one if the parent continues to fail to comply with a requirement imposed under that Article; and to provide for a reduction for 156 weeks of 40 per cent. of the income support personal allowance for a single claimant of 25 or over (regulation 3(6) to (10)).

The Child Support (Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 are amended in the following respects—

(a) regulation 11 is amended to ensure that an absent parent is always left with 70 per cent. of his net income after deduction of maintenance (regulation 4(4));

(b) regulation 19 is amended to provide for the maintenance requirement to be halved where an application is made in relation to only one parent, where both are absent (regulation 4(7));

(c) Schedule 1 is amended to make it clear that earnings include reimbursement by an employer of travelling expenses between home and work and the expenses of caring for a member of the parent’s family while he is absent from the home (regulation 4(8)(a)).

For regulation 17 of the Child Support Appeal Tribunals (Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993, there is substituted a new regulation which allows disclosure to the parties to an appeal of an address or information which might lead to a person being located, except where the appeal relates to a reduced benefit direction, and in all other cases, unless that person gives notification that he does not consent to such disclosure (regulation 6).

Other amendments made are of a minor, technical, consequential or procedural nature.