The Social Security and Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002

Amendment of the Child Support (Maintenance Calculation Procedure) Regulations

7.—(1) The Child Support (Maintenance Calculation Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001(1) shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (8).

(2) In regulation 1(1) (citation, commencement and interpretation) for “paragraph 27” there shall be substituted “paragraphs 12 and 27”.

(3) After regulation 9 (period within which reasons are to be given) there shall be inserted the following regulation—

“Period for parent to state if request still stands

9A.  The period to be specified for the purposes of Article 43(6) of the Order(2) (period for the parent to state if the request still stands) is 4 weeks from the date on which the Department serves notice under that paragraph.”.

(4) In regulation 25(1) (effective dates of maintenance calculations — maintenance order and application under Article 7) for sub-paragraph (c) there shall be substituted the following sub-paragraph—

“(c)there is a maintenance order which—

(i)is in force and was made on or after the date prescribed for the purposes of Article 7(10)(a) of the Order(3);

(ii)relates to the person with care, the non-resident parent and all the children to whom the application referred to in sub-paragraph (b) relates, and

(iii)has been in force for at least one year prior to the date of the application referred to in sub-paragraph (b).”.

(5) In regulation 26(1) (effective dates of maintenance calculations — maintenance order and application under Article 9) in sub-paragraph (c) for “and the non-resident parent” there shall be substituted “, the non-resident parent and all the children to whom the application referred to in sub-paragraph (b) relates”.

(6) In regulation 27(b) (effective dates of maintenance calculations — maintenance order ceases) for “24 or 25” there shall be substituted “25 or 26”.

(7) In regulation 28 (effective dates of maintenance calculations in specified cases) after paragraph (b) there shall be added the following paragraph—

“(c)except where the parent with care has made a request under Article 9(5) of the Order(4), where—

(i)in the period of 8 weeks immediately preceding the date the application is made, or treated as made under regulation 3, a maintenance calculation (“the previous maintenance calculation”) has been in force and has ceased to have effect;

(ii)the parent with care in respect of the previous maintenance calculation is the non-resident parent in respect of the application;

(iii)the non-resident parent in respect of the previous maintenance calculation is the parent with care in respect of the application, and

(iv)the application relates to the same qualifying child, or all of the same qualifying children, and no others, as the previous maintenance calculation,

the effective date of the maintenance calculation to which the application relates shall be the date on which the previous maintenance calculation ceased to have effect.”.

(8) In regulation 30(3) (transitional provision — effective dates and reduced benefit decisions) for “on or before” there shall be substituted “immediately before”.