The Child Support (Transitional Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001

Maximum transitional amount

25.—(1) Where a conversion decision is made in a circumstance to which regulation 15(2) applies (maintenance assessment and related maintenance calculation), or a subsequent decision is made, the liability of the non-resident parent to pay child support maintenance during the transitional period (excluding any amount payable in respect of arrears of child support maintenance and before reduction for any amount in respect of an overpayment) shall be whichever is the lesser of—

(a) where regulation 15(2) applies, the new amount or, where there is a subsequent decision, the subsequent decision amount; and

(b) the maximum transitional amount.

(2) Where—

(a) a conversion decision to which paragraph (1) applies, or a subsequent decision, results from an application made or treated as made for a maintenance calculation in respect of the same non-resident parent but a different qualifying child in relation to whom there is a different person with care (referred to in this regulation as “the new application”); and

(b) the amount of child support maintenance payable by the non-resident parent from the case conversion date, or the effective date of the subsequent decision, as the case may be, is the maximum transitional amount,

that amount shall be apportioned as provided in paragraph (3).

(3) The apportionment referred to in paragraph (2) shall be carried out as follows—

(a) the amount of child support maintenance payable by the non-resident parent to the person with care in relation to the new application shall be calculated as provided in Part I of Schedule 1 to the Order and Regulations made under that Part and where applicable, Part IV of these Regulations, and that amount shall be the amount payable to that person with care;

(b) the amount calculated as provided in sub-paragraph (a) shall be deducted from the maximum transitional amount and the remainder shall be apportioned among the other persons with care so that the proportion which each receives bears the same relation to the proportions which the others receive as those proportions would have borne in relation to each other and the new amount, or the subsequent decision amount, as the case may be, if the maximum transitional amount had not been applied.

(4) Where—

(a) apportionment under paragraph (3)(b) results in a fraction of a penny, that fraction shall be treated as a penny if it is either one half or exceeds one half, otherwise it shall be disregarded; and

(b) the application of paragraph (3)(b) would be such that the aggregate amount payable by a non-resident parent would be different from the aggregate amount payable before any such apportionment, the Department shall adjust that apportionment so as to eliminate that difference and that adjustment shall be varied from time to time so as to secure that, taking one week with another and so far as is practicable, each person with care receives the amount which that person with care would have received if no adjustment had been made under this paragraph.