The Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

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 Child Support (Information, Evidence and Disclosure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 are amended to make provision for disclosure of information to courts in connection with proceedings relating to a maintenance order or maintenance agreement (regulation 2).

Regulation 16 of the Child Support (Maintenance Assessment Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 is amended to provide for the calculation of the date on which a periodical review shall be undertaken in cases where more than one review has taken place since the assessment made on the last periodical review (regulation 3(6)).

The provisions for calculation of exempt and protected income in the Child Support (Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 are amended to reflect the removal of income support lone parent premium and of the higher rate of income support family premium for lone parents (regulations 4(4) to (7) and (13) and 5); and to make clear that where housing costs are shared and the other party does not pay his share, the parent can be allowed the full amount of the housing costs if he pays the other party’s share (regulation 4(8)).

The Child Support (Collection and Enforcement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 are amended to make provision for the appropriate amount of a deduction to be made when a person is paid in advance (regulation 6).

The Child Support (Maintenance Arrangements and Jurisdiction) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 are amended to provide for maintenance orders under the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 to be relevant for the purposes of Article 12 of the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 7).

The Child Support Appeal Tribunals (Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993 are amended to remove the obligation on clerks to tribunals to ask the parties whether they want an oral hearing of an application on certain limited technical grounds to set aside a decision (regulation 8).

The Child Support Departure Direction and Consequential Amendments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 are amended in the following respects—

(a) regulation 8 is amended to provide for notification of an application for a departure direction not to be given to other interested persons where the Department of Health and Social Services (“the Department”) is satisfied a direction is unlikely to be given (regulation 9(2));

(b) regulation 11A is inserted to make provision for a departure direction to be considered against an assessment which has been made following a review of the assessment in force at the time of the application for that direction (regulation 9(5));

(c) regulation 15 is amended to allow the Department to consider an application for a departure direction in respect of the cost of illness or disability of the absent parent’s dependant without deducting from the amount applied for any financial assistance, including benefits, payable in respect of the illness or disability (regulation 9(6));

(d) regulation 18 is amended to allow account to be taken in the calculation of the costs incurred in supporting stepchildren of deductions made from benefit in lieu of maintenance where the absent parent is on income support or income-based jobseeker’s allowance; and to take account of the abolition of income support lone parent premium and of the higher rate of family premium for lone parents (regulations 9(8) and 10);

(e) regulation 34A is inserted to make provision for the correction of accidental errors in departure directions (regulation 9(13));

(f) regulations 37, 39 and 40 are amended to make it clear that a departure direction can be given for less than the full amount which might have been applicable in the particular case (regulation 9(14) to (16)).

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