These Regulations are made pursuant to Article 28J of the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (“the Order”) as inserted by section 19 of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2000 (“the Act”). Article 28J of the Order provides for the Department for Social Development (“the Department”) to offset against child support maintenance arrears, or to adjust a maintenance calculation to take account of, voluntary payments.

Regulation 1 contains provisions relating to citation, commencement and interpretation. These Regulations come into operation according to the date on which section 19 of the Act is commenced.

Regulation 2 defines a “voluntary payment” by reference to regulations 3 and 4 and provides that, to be a voluntary payment, a payment must be made on or after the effective date of the maintenance calculation, which is governed by the Child Support (Maintenance Calculation Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001.

Regulation 3 defines the types of payments which may count as voluntary payments and regulation 4 defines the evidence or verification of such payments which the Department may require to be provided.

Article 28J of the Order, one of the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made was substituted by section 19 of the Act. Section 19 of the Act was brought into operation for the purpose only of making regulations, on 22nd November 2000 by the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security (2000 Act) (Commencement No. 1) Order (Northern Ireland) 2000 (S.R. 2000 No. 358 (C. 16)).

The impact on business of these Regulations was covered in the Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Act, in accordance with and in consequence of which, these Regulations are made. A copy of that Assessment may be obtained, free of charge, from Social Security Policy and Legislation Division, Castle Buildings, Stormont, Belfast BT4 3SQ.