Amendment of the Child Support Departure Direction and Consequential Amendments Regulations
5. For regulation 24 of the Child Support Departure Direction and Consequential Amendments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996(1) (diversion of income) substitute—
“24.—(1) A case shall constitute a case for the purposes of paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 4B to the Order where—
(a)the non-applicant has the ability to control the amount of income that—
(i)he receives, or
(ii)is taken into account as his assessable income,
including earnings from employment or self-employment and dividends from shares, whether or not the whole of that income is derived from the company or business from which those earnings are derived; and
(b)the Department is satisfied that the non-applicant has unreasonably reduced the amount of his income which would otherwise fall to be taken into account under regulation 7 or 8 of the Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases Regulations by diverting it to other persons or for purposes other than the provision of such income for himself.
(2) In this regulation “assessable income” means the amount calculated in accordance with paragraph 5(1) to (3) of Schedule 1 to the Order, and regulations made for the purposes of that paragraph.”.