The Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations 2003

PART 3 MAINTENANCE OF DEPENDANTS

11.—(1) The requirements referred to in regulation 18(1)(a) shall include the student’s requirements for the maintenance of dependants during the year and the amount of any such requirement (“dependants requirement”) shall be determined in accordance with this Part of this Schedule.

(2) Where a student’s requirements for the maintenance of dependants are different in respect of different parts of a year, his dependants requirement for that year shall be the aggregate of the proportionate parts of those differing requirements.

12.—(1) In this Part of this Schedule—

“adult dependant” means, in relation to a student, an adult person dependent on the student not being his child, his spouse or a person living with him as his spouse or his former spouse, subject however to sub-paragraphs (2) and (3);

“child”, in relation to a student, includes a person adopted in pursuance of adoption proceedings, a step-child and any child for whom the student has parental responsibility and who is dependent on him;

“dependant” means, in relation to a student, his spouse, his dependent child for whom he or his spouse is in receipt of child tax credit under Part I of the Tax Credits Act 2002(1), or an adult dependant, subject, subject however to sub-paragraphs (2) and (3);

“income” means income for the year from all sources (reduced by income tax and social security contributions) but disregarding—

(a)

any pension, allowance or other benefit paid by reason of a disability or incapacity to which the person is subject;

(b)

child benefit payable under Part IX of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992(2);

(c)

any allowance payable to his spouse by an adoption agency in accordance with regulations made under section 57A of the Adoption Act 1976(3);

(d)

any guardian’s allowance to which his spouse is entitled under section 77 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992;

(e)

in the case of a spouse with whom a child in the care of a local authority is boarded out, any payment made to him in pursuance of section 23 of the Children Act 1989(4);

(f)

any payments made to his spouse in pursuance of an order made under section 34 of the Children Act 1975(5), or under section 15 of and Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989 or any assistance given by a local authority pursuant to section 24 of that Act, in respect of a person who is not the spouse’s child;

(g)

any child tax credit to which he is entitled under Part I of the Tax Credits Act 2002;

(h)

where the spouse holds an award in respect of a course of teacher training designated under regulation 10(1) (b) (iii), being a part-time course or a course which is partly full-time and partly part-time, the payments in respect of maintenance made to the spouse in pursuance of regulation 17(1) (b) or so much of those payments as related to the part-time part of the course;

(i)

where the spouse or the student make any recurrent payments which were previously made by the student in pursuance of an obligation incurred before the first year of the student’s course—

(i)

if, in the opinion of the authority, the obligation had been reasonably so incurred, an amount equal to the payment in question;

(ii)

if, in their opinion, only a lesser obligation could have been reasonably so incurred, such correspondingly lesser amount (if any) as appears to them appropriate;

“relevant award” means a statutory award in respect of a person’s attendance at—

(a)

a full-time course of higher education or a comparable course outside England and Wales;

(b)

a course designated under sub-paragraph (d) (ii) of regulation 10(1); or

(c)

the full-time part of a course designated under sub-paragraph (d) (iii) of regulation 10(1) which is partly full-time and partly part-time;

“spouse”, except in the definition above of adult dependant, shall not include a student’s spouse if they have ceased ordinarily to live together whether or not an order for their separation has been made by any court.

(2) A person, including the student’s spouse, shall not be treated as a dependant of the student during any period for which that person—

(a) holds a relevant award; or

(b) (save for the purposes of paragraph 15) is ordinarily living outside the United Kingdom.

(3) A person shall not be treated as a student’s adult dependant … if the person’s net income exceeds £3,280.

• …

13.—(1) Subject to the following sub-paragraphs the dependants requirement of a student shall in respect of each academic year be £2,280 in total for only one of the following—

(a) a spouse, or

(b) an adult dependant whose net income does not exceed £3,280.

(2) The amount of dependants requirement under sub-paragraph (1) shall be reduced or extinguished by the difference between—

(a) the aggregate of the net income of each of the student’s dependants; and

(b) where the student—

(i) has no dependent child, £1,000;

(ii) is not a lone parent and has one dependent child, £3,000;

(iii) is not a lone parent and has more than one dependent child, £4,000;

(iv) is a lone parent and has one dependent child, £4,000; or

(v) is a lone parent and has more than one dependent child, £5,000

provided the aggregate amount calculated under paragraph (a) of this sub-paragraph is greater than the amount applicable under paragraph (b) of this sub-paragraph.

(3) The dependants requirement of the student shall, subject to paragraphs 14 and 15 be—

(a) if the student’s spouse holds a statutory award and in calculating payments under it account is taken of the spouse’s dependants requirement, one half of the amount determined in accordance with sub-paragraphs (1) and (2);

(b) in any other case, the whole of the amount so determined.

• …

(4) Where the student —

(a) is entitled to dependants requirement under sub-paragraph (1) and has not made an election under paragraph (3) of Schedule 4 and he has one or more dependent children, in addition to any dependants requirement referred to in the preceding paragraphs he shall be entitled to receive the sum of £1,300;

(b) is entitled to receive dependants requirement under sub-paragraph (1) and has not made an election under paragraph (3) of Schedule 4 and has one or more dependent children, he shall be entitled to receive the sum of £ 1,300 less the amount up to a maximum of £1,250 by which the aggregate of the net income of each of the student’s dependants exceeds the amount applicable in paragraph 13(2)(b) provided such excess amount is less than £1,300.

14.—(1) Subject to the following sub-paragraphs where the student has not made an election under paragraph (3) of Schedule 4 and he or his spouse has elected not to receive the child care element of the working tax credit under Part I of the Tax Credits Act 2002(6), his dependants requirement shall in respect of each academic year be increased in respect of childcare costs for each dependent child where the childcare is provided by an approved or registered childcare provider, if—

(a) the child is under the age of 15 immediately before the beginning of the academic year; or

(b) the child has registered special educational needs within the meaning of the Education Act 1996(7) and is under the age of 17 immediately before the beginning of the academic year.

• …

(2) The dependants requirement for each week for which a student shall be eligible under sub-paragraph (1) is:

• …

  (a)

  for one dependent child, 85 per cent. of the costs of the childcare, subject to a maximum amount of £114.75, or

  (b)

  for two or more dependent children, 85 per cent. of the costs of the childcare, subject to a maximum amount of £170

  except that the student shall not be eligible for any such amount in respect of each week falling within the period between the end of the course and the end of the academic year in which the course ends.

• …

(3) Where the amount to be deducted from a student’s dependants requirement in accordance with paragraph 13(2) exceeds the amount calculated under paragraph 13(1) and dependants requirement is payable under paragraph 13(2) the amount of such dependants requirement shall be reduced or extinguished by the amount of the excess and if the excess is greater than is required to extinguish any dependants requirement payable under paragraph 13(2) any dependants requirement payable under paragraph 13(4) shall be reduced or extinguished by the amount of the remaining excess.

(4) Where the amount to be deducted from a student’s dependants requirement in accordance with paragraph 13(2) exceeds the amount of dependants requirement calculated under paragraph 13(1) and no dependants requirement is payable under sub-paragraph (2), any dependants requirement payable under paragraph 13(4) shall be reduced or extinguished by the amount of the excess.

(5) Where no amount is to be deducted from a dependants requirement in accordance with paragraph 13(2) because paragraph 13(1) does not apply and dependants requirement is payable under sub-paragraph (2) the amount so payable shall be reduced or extinguished by the difference between—

(a) the aggregate of the net income of each of the student’s dependants; and

(b) where the student—

(i) has no dependent child, £1,000;

(ii) is not a lone parent and has one dependent child, £3,000;

(iii) is not a lone parent and has more than one dependent child, £4,000;

(iv) is a lone parent and has one dependent child, £4,000; or

(v) is a lone parent and has more than one dependent child, £5,000

provided the aggregate amount calculated under paragraph (a) of this sub-paragraph is greater than the amount applicable under paragraph (b) of this sub-paragraph.

(6) If the difference calculated under sub-paragraph (5) exceeds the amount required to extinguish any dependants requirement payable under sub-paragraph (2) any dependants requirement payable under paragraph 13(4) shall be reduced or extinguished by the amount of the excess.

(7) Where no amount is to be deducted from a dependants requirement in accordance with paragraph 13(2) because paragraph 13(1) does not apply and no dependants requirement is payable under sub-paragraph (2) the amount of dependants requirement payable under 13(4) shall be reduced or extinguished by the difference between—

(a) the aggregate of the net income of each of the student’s dependants; and

(b) where the student—

(i) has no dependent child, £1,000;

(ii) is not a lone parent and has one dependent child, £3,000;

(iii) is not a lone parent and has more than one dependent child, £4,000;

(iv) is a lone parent and has one dependent child, £4,000; or

(v) is a lone parent and has more than one dependent child, £5,000

provided the aggregate amount calculated under paragraph (a) of this sub-paragraph is greater than the amount applicable under paragraph (b) of this sub-paragraph.

(8) If the student’s spouse holds a statutory award and if in calculating payments under it account is taken of the spouse’s dependants requirement, account is taken of his dependants, the amount of grant calculated under sub-paragraph (2) shall be reduced by one half.

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(9) In this paragraph—

“approved childcare provider” means a childcare provider within the meaning of the Tax Credit (New Category of Childcare Provider) Regulations 1999(8), who has been approved in accordance with those Regulations;

“registered childcare provider” means a person who acts as a child minder or provides day care and is registered within the meaning of section 79F of the Children Act 1989(9), (grant or refusal of registration of child minders and persons providing day care for young children).

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15.—(1) This paragraph shall apply in the case of a student who maintains any dependant outside the United Kingdom.

(2) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing paragraphs of this Part of this Schedule, the dependants requirement of the student shall be of such amount, if any, as the authority consider reasonable in all the circumstances, not exceeding the amount determined in accordance with those paragraphs.

(1)

2002.c. 21.

(2)

1992 c. 4.

(3)

1976 c. 36; section 57A was introduced by paragraph 25 of Schedule 10 to the Children Act 1989 (c. 41). The relevant instruments are S.I. 1991/2030 and 2742.

(4)

1989 c. 41.

(5)

1975 c. 72; a new section 34 was substituted by section 64 of the Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates' Courts Act 1978 (c. 22); the Act was repealed by the Children Act 1989 (c. 41), section 108(7) and Schedule 15.

(6)

2002 c. 21.

(7)

1996 c. 56, section 312.

(8)

S.I. 1999/3110, made in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 15(1) and 15(4) of the Tax Credits Act 1999 (c. 10).

(9)

1989 c. 41; section 79F was inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000(c. 14).