The Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations make provision for revision of decisions under section 16 of the Child Support Act 1991 (“the 1991 Act”). Section 16 was substituted by section 40 of the Social Security Act 1998.

Decisions which can be revised by the Secretary of State are described in the new regulation 18A of the new Part VA which is inserted into the Child Support (Maintenance Assessment Procedure) Regulations (S.I. 1992 No. 1813) (“the Maintenance Assessment Procedure Regulations”). They are maintenance assessments under section 11 or 12 of the 1991 Act which have been reviewed under section 18 of that Act and are subject to appeal under section 20 of that Act. Revision under section 16 offers an alternative route to resolving a dispute in these cases. The new regulation 18B inserted into the Maintenance Assessment Procedure Regulations provides that an application for a revision must be made within 28 days of notification or acknowledgement from the Secretary of State of receipt of notice of the appeal; the application must be made to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State may also revise a decision on his own initiative.

The inserted regulation 18C sets out the circumstances in which a revised decision is to take effect from a date other than the date of the original decision. This is where the effective date of the original decision is considered to have been wrong.

The inserted regulation 18D provides that the appeal against the decision of the child support officer is not to lapse under section 16(6) of the 1991 Act where the decision is revised under section 16 before the appeal is determined where the revised decision is a less advantageous decision so far as the appellant is concerned either as regards the amount of the assessment or its effective date.

Regulations 2(2) and (4) make consequential amendments to the Maintenance Assessment Procedure Regulations and make savings for assessments the effective date of which is at least 104 weeks before the coming into force of these regulations. These are assessments in respect of which a review would have become due under section 16 of the 1991 Act before the new section 16 was introduced.

Regulation 3 contains consequential amendments and savings in relation to the Child Support Departure Direction and Consequential Amendments Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996 No. 2907), the Child Support (Arrears, Interest and Adjustment of Maintenance Assessments) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992 No. 1816) and the Child Support (Collection and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992 No. 1989).

These Regulations do not impose any costs on business.