Where a student’s ordinary maintenance requirements are different in respect of different parts of a year, his ordinary maintenance requirement for that year shall be the aggregate of the proportionate parts of those differing requirements.

In the case of such a student the ordinary maintenance requirement shall be £1,615.

This paragraph shall apply in the case of a student who attends at his course for a period of not less than 45 weeks in any continuous period of 52 weeks.

In respect of each aggregate period of a complete week for which he does not attend his course in the period of 52 weeks, the student’s supplementary requirement shall be determined in accordance with paragraph 5(2).

For the purposes of this paragraph a reference to expenditure incurred for the purpose of attending an institution, establishment or period of study includes expenditure incurred both before and after so attending.

This paragraph shall apply in the case of a student whose home is for the time being outside the United Kingdom and who incurs expenditure travelling between his home and the institution at the beginning and end of each period of study so appointed by that institution for instruction and study thereat.

In determining the supplementary requirement of such a student under paragraph 7, the board shall treat such amount of the said expenditure as it considers appropriate (having regard to the extent of that requirement apart from this paragraph), not exceeding the amount the student was obliged to incur, as if it were part of the student’s total travel expenditure.

This paragraph shall apply in the case of a student who reasonably incurs any expenditure in insuring against liability for the cost of medical treatment provided outside the United Kingdom for any illness or bodily injury contracted or suffered during a period of study outside the United Kingdom.

The student’s supplementary requirement in respect of such expenditure shall be the amount reasonably incurred.

This paragraph shall apply in the case of a disabled student where the board is satisfied that, by reason of his disability, he is obliged to incur additional expenditure in respect of his attendance at the course, other than expenditure for a purpose specified in paragraph 7(1).

The student’s supplementary requirement in respect of a non-medical personal helper shall be such amount as the board considers appropriate not exceeding £4,730.

The student’s supplementary requirement in respect of major items of specialised equipment shall be such amount as the board considers appropriate not exceeding £3,560 in total for the duration of his course.

The student’s supplementary requirement in respect of any other additional expenditure including expenditure incurred for the purposes specified in sub-paragraphs (2) and (3) which exceeds the maxima specified therein shall be such amount as the board considers appropriate not exceeding £1,185.

The requirements referred to in regulation 13(i)(a) shall include the student’s requirements for the maintenance of dependents during the year and the amount of any such requirement (“dependents' requirement”) shall be determined in accordance with this Part.

Where a student’s requirements for the maintenance of dependents are different in respect of different parts of a year, his dependents' requirement for that year shall be the aggregate of the proportionate parts of those differing requirements.

In this Part—

• “adult dependent” means, in relation to a student, an adult person dependent on the student not being his child, his spouse or a person living with him as his spouse or his former spouse, subject however to sub-paragraphs (2) and (3);

• “child”, in relation to a student, includes a person whether under or over compulsory school age, an illegitimate child, a person adopted in pursuance of adoption proceedings, a step-child and any child whose guardian or custodian the student is and who is dependent on him;

• “dependent” means, in relation to a student, his dependent child, his spouse or an adult dependent, subject however to sub-paragraphs (2) and (3);

• “income” means income for the year from all sources (reduced by income tax and social security contributions) but disregarding child benefit, any attendance allowance under sections 64 to 67 or disability living allowance under sections 71 to 76 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, or any mobility supplement or constant attendance allowance provided for in an order made under section 12(i) of the Social Security (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 197722 and in the case of a student’s spouse, less—

  1. a

     where the spouse holds an award in respect of a course of teacher training specified in paragraph (c) in the definition of “course of initial teacher training” in regulation 3(i), being a part-time course or a course which is partly full-time and partly part-time, the payments in respect of maintenance made to the spouse in pursuance of regulation 12(1)(b) or so much of those payments as relates to the part-time part of the course;

  2. b

     where the spouse or the student makes any payment which was previously made by the student in pursuance of an obligation incurred before the first year of his course—

     1. i

        if, in the opinion of the board, the obligation had been reasonably so incurred, an amount equal to the payment in question;

     2. ii

        if, in its opinion, only a lesser obligation could have been reasonably so incurred, such correspondingly lesser amount (if any) as appears to it appropriate; and

  3. c

     any allowance payable to the spouse by an adoption agency in accordance with the Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order 198723;

  4. d

     where a child in the care of the Department of Health and Social Services or a Health and Social Services Board is boarded out with the spouse, any payment made to the spouse in pursuance of section 114(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act (Northern Ireland) 196824; and

  5. e

     any guardian’s allowance to which the spouse is entitled under section 77 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992;

• “relevant award” means a statutory award in respect of a person’s attendance at a full-time course of higher education or a comparable course outside Northern Ireland;

• “spouse”, except in the definition of adult dependent, shall not include a student’s spouse if they have ceased ordinarily to live together whether or not an order for their separation has been made by any court.

This paragraph shall apply in the case of all students with dependents.

This paragraph shall apply in the case of a student with dependents who maintains a home for himself and a dependent at a place other than that at which he resides while attending the course.

The student’s dependents requirement (determined in accordance with paragraph 13(2)(a) or (b)) shall be increased by £635.

This paragraph shall apply in the case of a student who maintains a dependent outside the United Kingdom.

Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing paragraphs of this Part, the student’s dependents requirement shall be such amount, if any, as the board considers reasonable in all the circumstances, not exceeding the amount determined in accordance with those paragraphs.

In this Part, any reference to any provision of any of the Tax Acts passed before the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 198825 shall, in respect of a financial year ending after 5th April 1988, be construed as a reference to the corresponding provision of that Act in so far as that Act is applicable.

For the purposes of this Schedule, attendance at an institution or the undertaking of a period of study is a necessary part of a student’s course only where the board is satisfied that if the student did not attend the institution or undertake the period of study, he would not be eligible to complete his course and, for the purpose of being so satisfied, the board may require the matter to be evidenced by a certificate given by the academic authority.

For the purposes of this paragraph, “institution” includes an “overseas institution”.

In a case where the student is the parent or step-parent of an award holder in respect of whom a contribution is ascertained under Part II so much of the amount (if any) by which the contribution is reduced under paragraph 4(4) thereof as the board considers just shall be treated as part of the student’s income for the purposes of regulation 13(1)(b).

In this Part—

• “child” includes a person whether under or over compulsory school age and a person adopted in pursuance of adoption proceedings and a step-child but, except in paragraph 4, does not include a child who holds a statutory award and, except as otherwise provided by paragraph 5, “parent” shall be construed accordingly;

• “gross income” has the meaning assigned to it by paragraph 5;

• “income of the student’s parent” means the total income of the parent from all sources computed as for income tax purposes, except as otherwise provided by paragraph 5 or 6;

• “residual income” means, subject to sub-paragraph (2), the balance of gross income remaining in any year after the deductions specified in paragraph 6 have been made;

• “total income” has the same meaning as in section 835(1) of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 198838.

Where, in a case not failing within paragraph 5(3) or 5(4), the board is satisfied that the income of the parent in any financial year is as a result of some event beyond his control likely to be, and to continue after that year to be, not more than 85% of his income in the financial year preceding that year, it may, for the purpose of enabling the student to attend the course without hardship, ascertain the parental contribution for the year of his course in which that event occurred by taking as the residual income the average of the residual income for each of the financial years in which that year falls.

Where the student’s parent satisfies the board that his income is wholly or mainly derived from the profits of a business or profession carried on by him, then if the board and the parent so agree any reference in this Part to financial year shall be construed as a reference to a year ending with such date as appears to the board expedient having regard to the accounts kept in respect of that business or profession and the periods covered thereby.

The amount or (where a contribution is ascertained in respect of more than one child of the parent) the aggregate amount of the parental contribution shall not exceed £5,800 in any case.

Where in any year a student attends only part of his course the parental contribution for that year shall be reduced pro rata.

For the purposes of this paragraph, “preceding financial year” means the financial year immediately preceding the year in respect of which the resources of the student fall to be assessed (“assessment year”) and “current financial year” means the financial year which includes the first day of that assessment year;

Subject to the provisions of this paragraph, “gross income” means the income of the student’s parent in the preceding financial year or, for the purpose of calculating residual income under paragraph 2(2), in a financial year there mentioned.

Where the board is satisfied that the income of the parent in the current financial year is likely to be not more than 85 per cent of his income for the preceding financial year, it may for the purpose of calculating the parental contribution ascertain the gross income by reference to the current financial year; and, in such case, sub-paragraph (2) shall have effect, in relation to the assessment year and if the board so determines, any subsequent year, as if the reference therein to the preceding financial year were a reference to the current financial year.

Without prejudice to sub-paragraph (6), where, in pursuance of any trust deed or other instrument or by virtue of sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 32 of the Trustee Act (Northern Ireland) 195840 or any other statutory provision any income is applied by and person for or towards the maintenance, education or other benefit of the student or of any person dependent on the student’s parent, or payments made to hisparent are required to be so applied, that income, or those payments, shall be treated as part of the gross income of the parent.

Where any award such as is mentioned in paragraph 1(1)(b)(i) is made by reason of the parent’s employment to any member of his family or his household (whether the student or some other such member) who holds a statutory award then, notwithstanding the provisions of section 154 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 198841, that award shall not be treated as part of the gross income of the parent.

Where the parents do not ordinarily live together throughout the assessment year, the parental contribution shall be determined by reference to the income of whichever parent the board considers the more appropriate in the circumstances.

Where the student has a parent and a step-parent, the parental contribution shall be ascertained by reference to the income of the parent.

In any case where income is computed as though it were total income by virtue of paragraph 2(4), there shall be deducted from the parent’s gross income sums equivalent to the deductions mentioned in head (b), (c) or (d) of sub-paragraph (2), provided that any sums so deducted shall not exceed the deductions that would be made if the whole of the parent’s income were in fact total income.

Subject to sub-paragraphs (3) and (4), Part II shall, with the exception of paragraphs 3, 4(1), (2), (3)(a) and (b), 5(4), (7), (8), and 5(9) and 6(2)(f), apply with the necessary modifications for the ascertainment of the spouse’s contribution as it applies for the ascertainment of the parental contribution, references to the parent being construed as references to the student’s spouse and this Part shall be construed as one with the said Part II.

If the student marries during any year for which the contribution falls to be ascertained, the contribution for that year shall be the fraction of the sum ascertained in accordance with the provisions of sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) of which the denominator is 52 and the numerator is the number of complete weeks between the date of the marriage and whichever is the earlier of the end of that year and the end of the course.

If the student’s marriage terminates during any year for which the contribution falls to be ascertained, the contribution for that year shall be the fraction of the sum ascertained in accordance with sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) of which the denominator is 52 and the numerator is the number of complete weeks between the beginning of that year and the termination of the marriage.