The Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009

PART 1General

Citation and commencement

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 and, subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), come into operation on 6th April 2009.

(2) Regulations 2(2), 16 and Part 6 come into operation on 1st September 2009.

(3) Regulations 11(5)(d) and 13 come into operation on 21st December 2009.

Revocations

2.—(1) The Rules listed in the Schedule are revoked.

(2) Regulations 4(4), 88 and 89 of the Education (Student Support) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009(1) are revoked.

Interpretation

3.  In these Regulations—

“the Order” means the Education (Student Support) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998;

“the 1970 Act” means the Taxes Management Act 1970(2);

“the 1988 Act” means the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988(3);

“the 2003 Act” means the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003(4);

“the 2005 Act” means The Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005(5);

“the 2007 Act” means the Income Tax Act 2007(6);

“academic year” means the period from 1st September in any year to 31st August of the following year, regardless of whether this is, in fact, the period over which a borrower’s course runs;

“borrower” means a person to whom the Department has lent money pursuant to regulations made under Article 3 of the Order and who has not received a notice from the Department that it has been repaid or cancelled;

“Department” means the Department for Employment and Learning;

“HMRC” means Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs;

“National Insurance number” means the National Insurance number allocated within the meaning of the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001(7);

“overseas provisions” means the requirements of these Regulations in Part 5;

“overseas borrowers” means borrowers making or due to make repayments in accordance with Part 5;

“repayment” means repayment of a student loan;

“student loan” means the total outstanding principal, interest, penalties and charges owed by a borrower to the Department pursuant to these or any other regulations made under Article 3 of the Order excluding any interest, penalties or charges payable under Part 3 or 4;

“the Taxes Acts” has the same meaning as it has in the 1970 Act;

“tax year” –

“the tribunal” means the First-tier Tribunal or, where determined by or under the Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008(8), the Upper Tribunal.

Application: general

4.  These Regulations apply to repayments of student loans made under the Order.

Service by post or electronic communication

5.—(1) Any notice or other document which is authorised or required to be given, served or issued under these Regulations may be sent by ordinary post, or, if the recipient has previously agreed to receive communications in this format, by an agreed electronic format.

(2) In particular, any notice which the Department may give to HMRC may be transmitted electronically, and for these purposes a notice is transmitted electronically where the content and form of a notice is sent and received by electronic media between computer systems operated by the Department and HMRC respectively.