Agreements about maintenance
11.—(1) In this Article “maintenance agreement” means any agreement for the making, or for securing the making, of periodical payments by way of maintenance to or for the benefit of any child.
(2) Nothing in this Order shall be taken to prevent any person from entering into a maintenance agreement.
(3) The existence of a maintenance agreement shall not prevent any party to the agreement, or any other person, from applying for a maintenance assessment with respect to any child to or for whose benefit periodical payments are to be made or secured under the agreement.
(4) Where any agreement contains a provision which purports to restrict the right of any person to apply for a maintenance assessment, that provision shall be void.
(5) Where Article 10 would prevent any court from making a maintenance order in relation to a child and an absent parent of his, no court shall exercise any power that it has to vary any agreement so as—
(a)to insert a provision requiring that absent parent to make or secure the making of periodical payments by way of maintenance to or for the benefit of that child; or
(b)to increase the amount payable under such a provision.