The Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations 2000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which come into force on 1st September 2000, supersede the Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations 1999 as amended.

Provisions in these Regulations which differ from the corresponding provisions of the 1999 Regulations as amended (except as a result of minor drafting or consequential changes) are indicated by the use of heavy type. Omissions are indicated by the use of dots. The changes of substance made by these Regulations other than the changes in the rates of fees, grants and allowances are described below.

Regulation 5(4) is amended to provide expressly that members of the armed forces are treated as falling within the temporary employment abroad exemption from the residence conditions in regulation 13.

A new grant is available for a student who is entitled to receive a dependant’s grant in respect of a dependent child. The student is eligible for a grant as specified in paragraph 14(2) of Schedule 2, if the child is aged 3 or 4 or attends a school maintained by a local education authority or a city technology college or a city college for the technology of the arts. The student is not eligible if the dependent child already receives school meals free of charge under provisions in the Education Act 1996 (paragraph 14(3) of Schedule 2).

Paragraph 1(1)(c) of Schedule 3 is amended to extend the requirement to disregard grants to students to facilitate their training as teachers, in ascertaining the student’s income, to payments in respect of such training by institutions receiving funding under section 5 of the Education Act 1994 (“training salaries”) for students starting postgraduate courses of initial teacher training in the academic year 2000/2001.

In calculating an eligible student’s income for the purposes of determining his contribution, payments made to him for the maintenance of his child are to be disregarded (paragraph 1(1)(t) of Schedule 3). Where neither a parental contribution under paragraph 3 of Schedule 3, nor a spouse’s contribution under Part III of Schedule 3, applies in respect of the student, a new income disregard is applied under paragraph 1(1)(u) of Schedule 3, in place of the disregards that otherwise apply under paragraphs 1(1)(a) and 1(1)(q). Payments for the maintenance of an eligible student’s child or former spouse or person who lived with him as his spouse are to be deducted in calculating the student’s income (paragraph 1(4) of Schedule 3).

The provisions on the deductions to be made from a parent’s gross income for the purpose of determining his residual income are amended; the disregard of life insurance premiums has now been abolished (paragraph 6(2) of Schedule 3).

Paragraph 1(1)(a) of Schedule 5 has been amended so that unpaid service with a Primary Care Trust will also not be included in the definition of a “sandwich year”.