The Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations 1998

11.—(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 dependent child, his spouse or an adult dependant, 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 any pension, allowance or other benefit paid by reason of a disability to which the person is subject, paid by any state authority or agency, national, regional or local, by an employer or any former employer, or by any other person, which is not subject to income tax under the Income Tax Acts or, where the income is subject to the tax legislation of another member State, which would not be subject to tax under that legislation if it made provision equivalent to those Acts, and disregarding any benefit or allowance paid to a person for the benefit of a child of his or of whom he has custody or care or for whom he provides accommodation, by any state authority or agency, national, regional or local, and in the case of the student’s spouse—

  (a)

  where the spouse holds an award in respect of a course of teacher training designated under regulation 10(1)(d)(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 (2)(c) or so much of those payments as relates to the part-time part of the course;

  (b)

  where the spouse or the student make any payment which was 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;

  (c)

  any payments made to the spouse in pursuance of an order of a competent court for the benefit of a child who is not his child of whom he has custody or care or for whom he provides accommodation;

• “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 14) is ordinarily living outside the United Kingdom.

(3) A person shall not be treated as a student’s adult dependant or as his dependent child—

(a) in the case of a person other than a child of the student, if his income exceeds by £885 or more the sum specified in paragraph 12(4)(a);

(b) in the case of a child of a student who either has a spouse who is, or but for sub-paragraph (2) would be, his dependant or has an adult dependant, if the child’s income so exceeds the sum specified in paragraph 12(4)(b) as applicable to his age;

(c) in the case of a child of a student not falling within sub-paragraph (b), unless either—

(i) the child is the only or eldest child dependent on the student whose income does not so exceed the sum specified in paragraph 12(4)(a); or

(ii) the child’s income does not so exceed the sum specified in paragraph 12(4)(b) as applicable to his age.