Explanatory note

These Regulations provide for the amendment of various sets of Regulations relating to child support.

Regulation 1 makes provision for citation and commencement.

Regulations 7, 8, 9 and 10 amend the following Regulations and their provisions will take effect when those Regulations come into operation, which is at different times for different cases as determined by commencement order made under section 68(2) of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2000 (“the Act”):

• the Child Support (Maintenance Calculation Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 (“the Maintenance Calculation Procedure Regulations”);

• the Child Support (Maintenance Calculations and Special Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 (“the Maintenance Calculations and Special Cases Regulations”);

• the Child Support (Transitional Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 (“the Transitional Regulations”);

• the Child Support (Variations) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 (“the Variations Regulations”).

Regulations 2(3)(a) and 6 amend the Child Support (Information, Evidence and Disclosure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 (“the Information Regulations”) and the Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (“the Decisions and Appeals Regulations”), respectively, and will come into operation at different times for different cases as determined by commencement order made under section 68(2) of the Act.

Regulations 2(2) and (3)(b), 3, 4 and 5 amend Regulations which are in operation and come into effect on 30th April 2002.

Regulation 2 amends the Information Regulations to add to the categories of persons under a duty to furnish information, regulation 3 makes a minor amendment to the Child Support (Maintenance Assessment Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 and regulation 4 amends the Child Support (Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 so that an Income Support enhanced disability premium can be included in the calculation of exempt income.

Regulation 5 amends the Child Support Departure Direction and Consequential Amendments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 to provide that certain payments in respect of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may not be taken into account for the purposes of a departure direction.

Regulation 6 amends the Decisions and Appeals Regulations. Paragraph (2)(a)(i) inserts a new ground for revision under regulation 3A of the Decisions and Appeals Regulations. Paragraph (2)(a)(ii) provides for revision of certain (maintenance calculation) decisions where a person was not the parent of a relevant child. Paragraph (2)(c) inserts a new paragraph (5A) into regulation 3A of the Decisions and Appeals Regulations to provide for certain decisions to be revised at any time. Paragraph (4) provides dates when a supersession takes effect in a case where a flat rate liability is being paid, will become payable or will cease to be payable, at a different rate in accordance with paragraph 4(2) of Schedule 1 to the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (“the Order”), when non-resident parents become or cease to become partners and certain other consequential and incidental provisions as to supersession and time limits for appeals.

Regulation 7 makes minor amendments to the Maintenance Calculation Procedure Regulations. It also specifies the period of notice for the purposes of Article 43(6) of the Order and makes provisions for the effective date of a maintenance calculation in specific cases and clarifies that the transitional provisions in regulation 30(4) to (7) are to apply where Article 9 of the Order prior to its amendment by the Act applied immediately before the commencement date.

Regulation 8 amends the Maintenance Calculations and Special Cases Regulations as to how disabled person’s tax credit is to be taken into account in calculating the income of a non-resident parent and clarifies the type of income from self-employment which will be relevant for a maintenance calculation.

Regulation 9 amends the Transitional Regulations to provide for the time within which an appeal must be brought against a conversion decision to be either within the time from the date of notification of the conversion decision to one month after the date on which that decision takes effect, or as determined under the Decisions and Appeals Regulations, whichever is the later. It also amends those Regulations to clarify which cases are within the conversion provisions in regulation 15(2) of those Regulations, to provide for the transitional amount to be payable in certain flat rate cases and its apportionment between persons with care, to make provision for the effect on a conversion calculation where there is more than one revelant property transfer, or a combination of relevant property transfers and relevant departure directions, to provide for case conversion date provisions to apply to all maintenance assessments, to provide additional cases where the subsequent decision amount is payable and to provide that the linking provisions in regulation 28 of those Regulations do not apply in certain circumstances.

Regulation 10 makes a similar amendment to the Variations Regulations to that made by regulation 5 and makes other minor changes to those Regulations. It also amends regulation 7 of those Regulations so the preliminary consideration provisions apply to an application made under Article 28A of the Order and amends regulation 18 of those Regulations to provide that in certain circumstances land or property held as a business or trade asset is not excluded from the definition of “asset”.

Articles 22(4), 28B(2)(c), 28E(1), 28G and 43(10) of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 1 and paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Schedule 4B to, the Order and section 28 of the Act are some of the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made. Articles 22, 28B, 28G and 43 of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 1 and Schedule 4B to, the Order were substituted by sections 5(2), 7, 10 and 18 of, and paragraph 10 of Schedule 1 and Part II of Schedule 2 to, the Act and Article 28E(1) of the Order was amended by section 5(4)(a) of the Act. Sections 5, 7, 10, 18 and 28 of, and Schedule 1 and Part II of Schedule 2 to, the Act were brought into operation, for the purposes only of authorising the making of regulations on 22nd November 2000, and section 7 of the Act, in so far as it relates to Article 28G(2) of the Order, was brought fully into operation on 1st January 2001, by virtue of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security (2000 Act) (Commencement No. 1) Order (Northern Ireland) 2000 (S.R. 2000 No. 358 (C. 16)).

These Regulations do not impose a charge on business.