Part IIGeneral Provisions About Maintenance Assessments
Effective date of assessment
11(1)A maintenance assessment shall take effect on such date as may be determined in accordance with regulations made by the Secretary of State.
(2)That date may be earlier than the date on which the assessment is made.
Form of assessment
12Every maintenance assessment shall be made in such form and contain such information as the Secretary of State may direct.
Assessments where amount of child support is nil
13A child support officer shall not decline to make a maintenance assessment only on the ground that the amount of the assessment is nil.
Consolidated applications and assessments
14The Secretary of State may by regulations provide—
(a)for two or more applications for maintenance assessments to be treated, in prescribed circumstances, as a single application; and
(b)for the replacement, in prescribed circumstances, of a maintenance assessment made on the application of one person by a later maintenance assessment made on the application of that or any other person.
Separate assessments for different periods
15Where a child support officer is satisfied that the circumstances of a case require different amounts of child support maintenance to be assessed in respect of different periods, he may make separate maintenance assessments each expressed to have effect in relation to a different specified period.
Termination of assessments
16(1)A maintenance assessment shall cease to have effect—
(a)on the death of the absent parent, or of the person with care, with respect to whom it was made;
(b)on there no longer being any qualifying child with respect to whom it would have effect;
(c)on the absent parent with respect to whom it was made ceasing to be a parent of—
(i)the qualifying child with respect to whom it was made; or
(ii)where it was made with respect to more than one qualifying child, all of the qualifying children with respect to whom it was made;
(d)where the absent parent and the person with care with respect to whom it was made have been living together for a continuous period of six months;
(e)where a new maintenance assessment is made with respect to any qualifying child with respect to whom the assessment in question was in force immediately before the making of the new assessment.
(2)A maintenance assessment made in response to an application under section 4 or 7 shall be cancelled by a child support officer if the person on whose application the assessment was made asks him to do so.
(3)A maintenance assessment made in response to an application under section 6 shall be cancelled by a child support officer if—
(a)the person on whose application the assessment was made (“the applicant”) asks him to do so; and
(b)he is satisfied that the applicant has ceased to fall within subsection (1) of that section.
(4)Where a child support officer is satisfied that the person with care with respect to whom a maintenance assessment was made has ceased to be a person with care in relation to the qualifying child, or any of the qualifying children, with respect to whom the assessment was made, he may cancel the assessment with effect from the date on which, in his opinion, the change of circumstances took place.
(5)Where—
(a)at any time a maintenance assessment is in force but a child support officer would no longer have jurisdiction to make it if it were to be applied for at that time; and
(b)the assessment has not been cancelled, or has not ceased to have effect, under or by virtue of any other provision made by or under this Act,
it shall be taken to have continuing effect unless cancelled by a child support officer in accordance with such prescribed provision (including provision as to the effective date of cancellation) as the Secretary of State considers it appropriate to make.
(6)Where both the absent parent and the person with care with respect to whom a maintenance assessment was made request a child support officer to cancel the assessment, he may do so if he is satisfied that they are living together.
(7)Any cancellation of a maintenance assessment under sub-paragraph (5) or (6) shall have effect from such date as may be determined by the child support officer.
(8)Where a child support officer cancels a maintenance assessment, he shall immediately notify the absent parent and person with care, so far as that is reasonably practicable.
(9)Any notice under sub-paragraph (8) shall specify the date with effect from which the cancellation took effect.
(10)A person with care with respect to whom a maintenance assessment is in force shall provide the Secretary of State with such information, in such circumstances, as may be prescribed, with a view to assisting the Secretary of State or a child support officer in determining whether the assessment has ceased to have effect, or should be cancelled.
(11)The Secretary of State may by regulations make such supplemental, incidental or transitional provision as he thinks necessary or expedient in consequence of the provisions of this paragraph.