# 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/ukdsi/2015/9780111127063/regulation/4 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-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.