Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations provide for the amendment of various sets of Regulations relating to child support:

Regulation 1 makes provision for citation and commencement.

Regulation 2 amends the Information Regulations to clarify that the Department may disclose information to all the parties to an appeal for the purposes of an appeal to an appeal tribunal.

Regulation 3 amends regulation 16 of the Maintenance Assessment Procedure Regulations to provide a new ground for revision in a case where an appeal is made within the time limits provided for in regulations 31 and 32 of those Regulations and that appeal has not been determined.

Regulation 4 amends the Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases Regulations. Regulation 4(2) amends paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 1 to those Regulations to provide that any statutory paternity pay or any statutory adoption pay are brought within the definition of “earnings” in the case of employment as an employed earner for the purposes of calculating the net income of an absent parent and a parent with care. Regulation 4(3) and (4)(c) makes minor technical amendments. Regulation 4(4)(a) and (b) amends Schedule 3B to the Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases Regulations to provide for the calculation of costs in respect of travelling between home and work to be made in metric equivalents.

Regulation 5 amends the Decisions and Appeals Regulations. Regulation 5(a) amends regulation 6B(3) of those Regulations to provide that where the application for supersession is made on more than one ground, if one of the grounds which does not relate to the net income of the non-resident parent leads to a supersession, regulation 6B shall not apply to the ground which relates to the net income of the non-resident parent. Regulation 5(b) adds a new paragraph (5) to regulation 6B of the Decisions and Appeals Regulations to provide that where there has been an earlier application for a supersession to which paragraph (1) of regulation 6B applied, and there is a later application for supersession on a ground other than that relating to the net income of the non-resident parent, the superseding decision may be made on the basis that the earlier application was made at the same time as the later application.

Regulation 6 amends the Maintenance Calculation Procedure Regulations. Regulation 6(2) amends regulation 28(1) of those Regulations to provide effective dates for a maintenance calculation which is made in response to an application where there is at the time of that application a maintenance calculation in force in relation to the same non-resident parent and a different person with care and that maintenance calculation ceases to have effect. Regulation 6(3) makes an amendment in consequence of the amendment made by regulation 6(2).

Regulation 7 amends the Maintenance Calculations and Special Cases Regulations. Regulation 7(2) makes an amendment in consequence of the amendment made by regulation 7(3)(b). Regulation 7(3)(a) amends paragraph 4(1) of the Schedule to those Regulations to provide that any statutory paternity pay or any statutory adoption pay are brought within the definition of “earnings” in the case of employment as an employed earner for the purposes of calculating the net weekly income of a non-resident parent. Regulation 7(3)(b) adds a new Part VI to the Schedule to the Maintenance Calculations and Special Cases Regulations to include benefits, pensions and allowances prescribed under paragraph 4(1)(b) and (c) of Schedule 1 to the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1991, paid to a non-resident parent or his partner, in the list of payments which are aggregated to calculate the net weekly income of the non-resident parent, for the purposes of establishing whether that non-resident parent is a person to whom paragraph 5(b) of Schedule 1 to that Order applies.

Regulation 8 amends the Transitional Regulations. Regulation 8(2) amends the interpretation provision of those Regulations. Regulation 8(3) substitutes regulation 3(2) of the Transitional Regulations to provide that where the Department supersedes under regulation 3(1)(a) or (b) in a case to which regulation 5(b) applies it will (where it is unable to make the decision on the basis of the information held at the calculation date) use the information used or considered to make the maintenance assessment to be superseded. Regulation 8(4) inserts a new regulation 4A into the Transitional Regulations to provide that where an adjustment has been made to a maintenance assessment it may be revised or superseded under the Decisions and Appeals Regulations. Regulation 8(5) inserts a new regulation 5A into the Transitional Regulations to provide that regulation 5 applies in the same way to a decision of the Department acting on its own initiative to revise or supersede a maintenance assessment, an interim maintenance assessment or a departure direction as it does to an application made for the same purpose. Regulation 8(6) makes an amendment in consequence of that made by regulation 8(7). Regulation 8(7) inserts new regulations 9A and 9B into the Transitional Regulations. Regulation 9A provides that where there has been an adjustment made to a maintenance assessment, it may be applied to the new amount or transitional amount payable under a conversion decision, where the overpayment remains on the case conversion date and the Department considers it appropriate in all the circumstances of the case. In a case where there is more than one parent with care the adjustment to the conversion decision shall only apply to the parent with care in respect of whom the maintenance assessment was made. Regulation 9B provides that where there are arrears of child support maintenance payable under a maintenance assessment and the Department has attributed a payment of that maintenance, it may be applied to the new amount or transitional amount payable under a conversion decision where the arrears are outstanding on the case conversion date. Regulation 8(8)(a) makes an amendment in consequence of the amendment made by regulation 8(3). Regulation 8(8)(b) makes a minor technical amendment. Regulation 8(9) amends regulation 27 of the Transitional Regulations to make provision for specific cases where a subsequent decision is made.

Regulation 9 amends the Variations Regulations. Regulation 9(2) inserts a new definition of “partner” into those Regulations. Regulation 9(3) makes an amendment in consequence of the amendment made by regulation 9(2). Regulation 9(4) makes a minor technical amendment.

Regulation 10 makes consequential revocations.

A regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this rule as it has no impact on the costs of business.