The Child Support Departure Direction and Consequential Amendments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Contact costs

14.—(1) Where at the time a departure direction is applied for a set pattern has been established as to frequency of contact between the absent parent and a child in respect of whom the current assessment was made, the following costs, based upon that pattern and incurred by that absent parent for the purpose of maintaining contact with that child, shall, subject to paragraphs (2) to (6), constitute expenses for the purposes of paragraph 2(2) of Schedule 4B to the Order—

(a) the cost of purchasing a ticket for travel for the purpose of maintaining that contact;

(b) the cost of purchasing fuel, where travel is for the purpose of maintaining that contact and is by a vehicle which is not carrying fare-paying passengers; or

(c) the taxi fare for a journey or part of a journey to maintain that contact where the Department is satisfied that the disability of the absent parent makes it impracticable to use any other form of transport which might otherwise have been available to him,

and any minor incidental costs, such as tolls or fees for the use of a particular road or bridge, incurred in connection with such travel.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3), where the Department considers any costs referred to in paragraph (1) to be unreasonably high or to have been unreasonably incurred it may substitute such lower amount as it considers reasonable, including a nil amount.

(3) Any lower amount substituted by the Department under paragraph (2) shall not be so low as to make it impossible, in the Department’s opinion, for contact to be maintained at the frequency specified in any court order made in respect of the absent parent and the child mentioned in paragraph (1) where the absent parent is maintaining contact at that frequency.

(4) Paragraph (1) shall not apply where regulation 20 of the Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases Regulations (persons treated as absent parents) applies to the applicant.

(5) Where paragraph (1)(c) applies and the applicant has, at the date an application is made, received, or at that date is in receipt of, financial assistance from any source to meet, wholly or in part, costs of maintaining contact with the child who is referred to in paragraph (1), which arise wholly from his disability and which are in excess of the costs which would be incurred if that disability did not exist, only the net amount of the costs referred to in paragraph (1)(c), after the deduction of that financial assistance, shall constitute special expenses for the purposes of paragraph 2(2) of Schedule 4B to the Order.

(6) For the purposes of this regulation, a person is disabled if he is blind, deaf or dumb or is substantially or permanently handicapped by illness, injury, mental disorder or congenital deformity.

(7) Where, at the time a departure direction is applied for, no set pattern has been established as to frequency of contact between the absent parent and a child in respect of whom the current assessment was made, but the Department is satisfied that that absent parent and the person with care of that child have agreed upon a pattern of contact for the future, the costs mentioned in paragraph (1) and which are based upon that intended pattern of contact shall constitute expenses for the purposes of paragraph 2(2) of Schedule 4B to the Order, and paragraphs (2) to (6) shall apply to that application.