Part VN.I. Income Support And The Duty To Maintain

103 Reduction of expenditure on income support: certain maintenance orders to be enforceable by the Department.N.I.

(1)This section applies where—

(a)a person (“the claimant”) who is the parent of one or more children is in receipt of income support [F1or universal credit] either in respect of those children or in respect of both himself and those children; and

(b)there is in force a maintenance order made against the other parent (“the liable person”)—

(i)in favour of the claimant or one or more of the children, or

(ii)in favour of some other person for the benefit of the claimant or one or more of the children;

and in this section “the primary recipient” means the person in whose favour that maintenance order was made.

(2)If, in a case where this section applies, the liable person fails to comply with any of the terms of the maintenance order—

(a)the Department may bring any proceedings or take any other steps to enforce the order that could have been brought or taken by or on behalf of the primary recipient; and

(b)any court before which proceedings are brought by the Department by virtue of paragraph (a) above shall have the same powers in connection with those proceedings as it would have had if they had been brought by the primary recipient.

[F2(bb)any water undertaker (within the meaning of the Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006);]

(3)The Department’s powers under this section are exercisable at the Department’s discretion and whether or not the primary recipient or any other person consents to their exercise; but any sums recovered by virtue of this section shall be payable to or for the primary recipient, as if the proceedings or steps in question had been brought or taken by him or on his behalf.

(4)The powers conferred on the Department by subsection (2)(a) above include power—

(a)to apply for the registration of the maintenance order under—

(i)section 17 of the M1Maintenance Orders Act 1950; [F3or]

(ii)section 11 of the M2Maintenance and Affiliation Orders Act (Northern Ireland) 1966; F4... F5. . .

F4(iii). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F6[F7(iv). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]

F8(aa). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[F9(ab)to apply for recognition and enforcement of the maintenance order under the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and other forms of Family Maintenance done at The Hague on 23rd November 2007, to the extent permitted by Article 36 of that Convention; and]

(b)to make an application under section 2 of the M3Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1972 (application for enforcement in reciprocating country).

(5)Where this section applies, the prescribed person shall in prescribed circumstances give the Department notice of any application—

(a)to alter, vary, suspend, discharge, revoke, revive or enforce the maintenance order in question; or

(b)to remit arrears under that maintenance order;

and the Department shall be entitled to appear and be heard on the application.

(6)Where, by virtue of this section, the Department commences any proceedings to enforce a maintenance order, the Department shall, in relation to those proceedings, be treated for the purposes of any statutory provision relating to maintenance orders as if it were a person entitled to payment under the maintenance order in question (but shall not thereby become entitled to any such payment).

(7)Where, in any proceedings under this section, the court makes an order for the whole or any part of the arrears due under the maintenance order in question to be paid as a lump sum, the Department shall inform [F10the Department of Justice] of the amount of that lump sum if the Department knows—

(a)that the primary recipient received [F11civil legal services funded by the Department of Justice] in connection with the proceedings in which the maintenance order was made, and

(b)that a sum remains unpaid on account of the contribution required of the primary recipient [F12by virtue of Article 17 of the Access to Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2003] in respect of those proceedings.

[F13(8)In this section “maintenance order” means an order for the making of periodical payments under any statutory provision prescribed for the purposes of this subsection.]

F14(9). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Textual Amendments

F1Words in s. 103(1)(a) inserted (27.9.2017) by The Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/2006), art. 2(2), Sch. 2 para. 12; S.R. 2017/190, art. 4(1)(2)(g)(ii)

F2S. 103(2D)(bb) inserted (1.4.2007) by The Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 (S.I. 2006/3336), art. 1(2), Sch. 12 para. 30(2) (with arts. 8(8), 121(3), 307); S.R. 2007/194, art. 2(2), Sch. Pt. 2 (with Sch. 2)