# The Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015, Regulation 4: When a person is regarded as responsible for a child


(1) For the purposes of the Act, a person is regarded as responsible for a child who normally lives with the person.
(2) A person is not regarded as responsible for a child during any period when the child is—
(a) continuously absent from the person's household for a period which exceeds, or is expected to exceed, 6 months;
(b) a prisoner;
(c) looked after by a local authority; or
(d) placed for adoption by an adoption agency in the home of a person proposing to adopt the child.
(3) A child is not looked after by a local authority for the purpose of paragraph (2)(c)—
(a) during any period which is in the nature of a planned short term break, or is one of a series of such breaks, for the purpose of providing respite for the person with whom the child normally lives; or
(b) during any period when the child is placed with, or continues to live with, the child's parent or a person who has parental responsibility for the child.
(4) For the purposes of paragraph (3), a person has parental responsibility if that person is not a foster parent and—
(a) in England and Wales, has parental responsibility as defined by section 3 of the Children Act 1989 ;
(b) in Scotland, has any or all of the legal responsibilities or rights described in section 1 or 2 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 ; or
(c) in Northern Ireland, has parental responsibility as defined by article 6 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 .
(5) In this regulation—
“adoption agency” has the meaning given (for England and Wales) in section 2 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 , (for Scotland) in section 119 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 , and (for Northern Ireland) in article 3 of the Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 ;
“looked after by a local authority” has the meaning given in section 22 of the Children Act 1989 , section 17(6) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 or article 25 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (with the modification that for the reference to a local authority there is substituted a reference to an authority within the meaning of article 2 of that Order);
“placed for adoption” means placed for adoption in accordance with—
(a)the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 ;
(b)the Adoption Agencies (Wales) Regulations 2005 ;
(c)the Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 2009 ; or
(d)the Adoption Agencies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1989 .

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/448/regulation/4 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/childcare-payments-eligibility-regulations-2015/regulation-4
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.