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

Decision and notice of decision

3.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), a decision as to the amount of child support maintenance payable under a maintenance assessment or an interim maintenance assessment made under Article 13, 14, 18, 19 or 22 of the former Order(1) may be superseded by the Department on its own initiative under Article 19 of the Order, in relation to—

(a) a maintenance assessment (whenever made) which has an effective date before the commencement date and is in force on the calculation date;

(b) a maintenance assessment made following an application for child support maintenance which is made or treated as made as provided for in regulation 28(1);

(c) an interim maintenance assessment where there is sufficient information held by the Department to make a decision in accordance with this paragraph.

(2) Where the Department acts in accordance with paragraph (1) the information used for the purposes of that supersession will be that held by the Department on the calculation date.

(3) Where a superseding decision referred to in paragraph (1) is made the Department shall—

(a) make a conversion calculation;

(b) calculate a new amount; and

(c) notify to the non-resident parent and the person with care in writing—

(i) the new amount;

(ii) where appropriate, the transitional amount;

(iii) any phasing amount applied in the calculation of the transitional amount;

(iv) the length of the transitional period;

(v) the date the conversion decision was made;

(vi) the effective date of the conversion decision;

(vii) the non-resident parent’s net weekly income;

(viii) the number of qualifying children;

(ix) the number of relevant other children;

(x) where there is an adjustment for apportionment or shared care, or both, or under regulation 9 or 11 of the Maintenance Calculations and Special Cases Regulations, the amount calculated in accordance with Part I of Schedule 1 to the Order and those Regulations;

(xi) any relevant departure direction or relevant property transfer taken into account in the conversion decision, and

(xii) any apportionment carried out in accordance with regulation 25(3).

(4) Where at the calculation date there is an interim maintenance assessment in force and there is insufficient information held by the Department to make a maintenance assessment, or a decision in accordance with paragraph (1), the Department shall—

(a) supersede the interim maintenance assessment to make a default maintenance decision; and

(b) notify the non-resident parent and the person with care in writing, in accordance with regulation 15C(2) of the Decisions and Appeals Regulations(2).

(5) In a case to which paragraph (1)(c) or (4) applies, where after the calculation date information is made available to the Department to enable it to make a maintenance assessment it may—

(a) where the decision was made under paragraph (1)(c), revise the interim maintenance assessment in accordance with the Maintenance Assessment Procedure Regulations, and supersede the conversion decision in accordance with the Decisions and Appeals Regulations;

(b) where the decision was made under paragraph (4), revise the interim maintenance assessment in accordance with the Maintenance Assessment Procedure Regulations, and revise the default maintenance decision in accordance the Decisions and Appeals Regulations.

(6) A decision referred to in paragraph (1) or (4) shall take effect from the case conversion date.

(1)

Articles 13 was amended by Article 13 of the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (S.I. 1995/2702 (N.I. 13)) and paragraph 11 of Schedule 6 to the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998. Article 14 was amended by Article 5 of the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 and paragraph 12 of Schedule 6 to the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998. Article 22 was substituted by Article 42 of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998

(2)

Regulation 15C is inserted by regulation 2(9) of S.R. 2001 No. 23