The Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009

Priority where other deductions required

46.—(1) Where any employer is required to deduct repayments from a payment under regulation 45 but the aggregate of the deduction and any deductions on account of income tax and National Insurance contributions exceeds the amount of the payment, the employer must make the deductions on account of income tax and National Insurance first and the amount of the repayment which is to be deducted must be the remaining balance.

(2) Where an employer is required to deduct repayments from a payment under regulation 45 and is also required to comply with one or more of any of the types of notice or order in paragraph (3), paragraph (4) will apply.

(3) For the purposes of this paragraph, the notices and orders are—

(a) attachment of earnings orders made under the Judgments Enforcement (Northern Ireland) Order 1981(1) or the Magistrates’ Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981(2);

(b) deductions of earnings orders made under the Child Support (Collection and Enforcement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992(3); or

(c) income support deduction notices made under regulation 20 of the Social Security (Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1988(4) (“the Social Security Regulations”).

(4) An employer must deduct repayments as if they were amounts requiring deduction pursuant to an attachment of earnings order which—

(a) was not made to secure the repayment of a judgement debt or payments under an administration order;

(b) was the most recent order not made for that purpose; and

(c) specifies a protected earnings rate equal to the protected earnings rate specified in the most recent attachment of earnings order, deduction of earnings order or income support deduction notice not made for that purpose which specifies such a rate, unless there is no such order or notice.

(5) Where in the circumstances described in paragraph (4) an employer is required to comply with an income support deduction notice under regulation 20 of the Social Security Regulations before deducting a repayment under regulation 45, no repayment must be deducted by the employer.

(6) Where repayments to be deducted in accordance with paragraph (4) are reduced as a result of paragraph (4)(c) and the total of the reduced payments includes pence as well as pounds the pence are to be ignored.

(1)

SI 1981/226 (N.I. 6)

(2)

SI 1981/1675 (N.I. 26)

(3)

S.R. 1992 No. 390

(4)

S.R. 1988 No. 142