Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations, which come into operation on 20th October and have effect on and from 1st September 2000, revoke and replace, with amendments the Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 as amended.

Retrospection is authorised by Article 50(2) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986.

The changes of substance made by these Regulations other than the changes in the rates of fees, grants and allowances are described in the following paragraphs.

Regulation 7(1) is amended to provide expressly that members of the armed forces are treated as falling within the temporary employment abroad provision.

A new grant is available for a student who is entitled to receive a dependant’s grant in respect of a dependant child. The student is eligible for a grant as specified in paragraph 14(2) of Schedule 6, if the child is aged 3 or 4 or attends a grant-aided school. The student is not eligible if the dependent child already receives school meals free of charge under arrangements approved by the Department of Education in accordance with the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (paragraph 14(3) of Schedule 6).

Paragraph 1(1)(c) of Schedule 7 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 7). Where neither a parental contribution under paragraph 3 of Schedule 7, nor a spouse’s contribution under Part III of Schedule 7, applies in respect of the student, a new income disregard is applied under paragraph 1 (1) (u) of Schedule 7, 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 7).

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 7).

Paragraph 1 (1)(a) of Schedule 9 has been amended so that unpaid service with a primary care trust in the United Kingdom will also not be included in the definition of “sandwich year”.