Children and Young Persons Act 1963

Recovery of arrears of contributions

30Recovery of arrears of contributions

(1)Where during any period (in this section referred to as " the period of default ")—

(a)a person was liable to make contributions in respect of a child ; but

(b)no order was in force requiring him to make the contributions;

a magistrates' court acting for the petty sessions area where he is for the time being residing may, on the application of the person who would have been entitled to receive payment under such an order, make an order (in this section referred to as an "arrears order") requiring him to pay such weekly sum, for such period, as the court, having regard to his means, thinks fit; but the aggregate of the payments required to be made by any person under an arrears order shall not exceed the aggregate that, in the opinion of the court, would have been payable by him under a contribution order in respect of the period of default or, if it exceeded three months, the last part thereof, less the aggregate of the payments (if any) made by him in respect of his liability during that period or, as the case may be, the last part thereof.

For the purposes of this subsection the last part of the period of default shall be taken to be the last three months thereof and such time, if any, preceding the last three months as is equal to the time during which it continued after the making of the application for the arrears order.

(2)No application for an arrears order shall be made later than three months after the end of the period of default.

(3)An arrears order shall be treated as a contribution order, and payments under it as contributions, for the purposes of the following enactments, that is to say—

• in the principal Act, subsections (3) and (4) of section 86, sections 87(4), 89 and 102(1)(c),

• the Maintenance Orders Act 1950,

• the Maintenance Orders Act 1958,

• paragraph 2 of Schedule 8 to the Local Government Act 1958.

(4)Where the person who was liable to make contributions resides in Scotland or Northern Ireland, subsection (1) of this section shall have effect as if for the magistrates' court therein mentioned there were substituted a magistrates' court acting for the petty sessions area where the applicant is for the time being residing or, where the applicant is a local authority, a magistrates' court acting for the area or part of the area of the local authority.

(5)A person liable to make payments under an arrears order shall, except at a time when he is under a duty to give information of his address under section 14(1) of this Act, keep the person to whom the payments are to be made informed of his address; and if he fails to do so he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds.

(6)In this section—

• " child " has the same meaning as in the Children Act 1948,

• " contributions " means contributions under section 86 of the principal Act, and

• " contribution order " means an order under section 87 of the principal Act.