# The Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1996, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend various regulations made under the Child Support Act 1991 (“the Act").
For regulation 17 of the Child Support Appeal Tribunal (Procedure) Regulations 1992, there is substituted a new regulation, which allows disclosure to the parties to an appeal of an address or information which might lead to a person being located, where the appeal relates to a reduced benefit direction, and in all other cases, unless that person gives notification that he does not consent to such disclosure (regulation 2).
Reference to the Earnings Top-up Scheme is inserted into the Child Support Fees Regulations 1992 (regulations 5 and 6) and into Schedule 1 to the Child Support (Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases) Regulations 1992 (regulation 24).
The Child Support (Information, Evidence and Disclosure) Regulations 1992 are amended to make provision for information to be given to enable the Secretary of State to decide whether a court order for maintenance or a written maintenance agreement made before 5th April 1993 is in force; whether a person with care who has applied for a maintenance assessment has parental responsibility for the child in question; and which means of enforcement of a maintenance assessment available to him would be appropriate in the circumstances of a particular case (regulations 7 and 8).
The Child Support (Maintenance Assessment Procedure) Regulations 1992 are amended in the following respects—
regulation 33 is amended to make provision for maintenance periods to coincide where more than one application for a maintenance assessment is being dealt with at the same time (regulation 12);
Part IX is amended to provide that a case may be referred by the Secretary of State to a Child Support Officer two weeks after notification of intention to refer, if the parent with care has not set out in writing her reasons for contending that harm or undue distress might result from compliance with a requirement under section 6 of the Act. It is also amended to allow for a further Reduced Benefit Direction to be issued on the expiry of the previous one if the parent continues to fail to comply with a requirement imposed under that section; and to provide for a reduction for 156 weeks of 40 per cent. of the income support personal allowance for a single claimant of 25 or over (regulations 13 to 17).
The Child Support (Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases) Regulations 1992 are amended in the following respects—
regulation 11 is amended to ensure that an absent parent is always left with 70 per cent. of his net income after deduction of maintenance (regulation 20);
regulation 19 is amended to provide for the maintenance requirement to be halved where an application is made in relation to only one parent, where both are absent (regulation 23);
Schedule 1 is amended to make it clear that earnings include reimbursement by an employer of travelling expenses between home and work and the expenses of caring for a member of the parent’s family while he is absent from the home (regulation 24).
Other amendments made are of a minor, technical, consequential or procedural nature.
Copies of the rules of the Earnings Top-up Scheme referred to in regulations 5 and 18, may be obtained from the Customer Services Manager, Earnings Top-up, Norcross, Blackpool FY5 3TA.
These Regulations do not impose any costs on business.

---
Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/1945/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/child-support-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-1996/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.