Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Education (Student Support) (No. 2) Regulations 2002 (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2004 and shall come into force on 9th November 2004.

2.  In these Regulations–

“the 2002 Regulations” means the Education (Student Support) (No. 2) Regulations 2002(2).

Amendment of the 2002 Regulations

3.  The 2002 Regulations shall be amended as follows.

4.  There shall be substituted for paragraph 1(g) of Schedule 3 the following–

“(g) “new eligible student” means an eligible student starting a designated course on or after 1st September 2004 other than–

(i)a designated course which is an end-on course in relation to a designated course which the student started before 1st September 2004; or

(ii)a designated course to which the student’s eligibility has been transferred as a result of one or more transfers under regulation 7 from a designated course which he started before 1st September 2004;”.

5.  In paragraph 4(10) and 4(11) of Schedule 3 there shall be inserted after “Where” the words “the Secretary of State determines that”.

6.  There shall be substituted for paragraphs 5(2) and 5(3) of Schedule 3 the following–

“(2) Where the Secretary of State determines that the eligible student and his partner do not ordinarily live together throughout the relevant year, the partner’s income shall not be taken into account in determining the household income.

(3) Where the Secretary of State determines that the eligible student and his partner do not ordinarily live together for part only of the relevant year, the partner’s income shall be determined by reference to his income under sub-paragraph (1) divided by fifty-two and multiplied by the number of complete weeks in the relevant year for which the Secretary of State determines that the eligible student and his partner ordinarily live together.”.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Education (Student Support) (No. 2) Regulations 2002 (the “2002 Regulations”). The 2002 Regulations provide for support for students taking designated higher education courses.

Regulation 4 amends paragraph 1(g) of Schedule 3 to the 2002 Regulations so that a student who begins a course on or after 1st September 2004 is treated as having begun that course before 1st September 2004 if he has transferred to that course from a course which began before that date. As a consequence, the requirement in the 2002 Regulations to take into account the income of the partner of the student’s natural parent in assessing the amount of support payable to a student beginning a course on or after 1st September 2004 does not apply to such a student.

Regulations 5 and 6 amend paragraphs 4 and 5 of Schedule 3 to ensure that, for the purposes of assessing the amount of support payable to a student, the same method is used for calculating the income of the student’s natural parent, any partner of the student and any partner of the student’s natural parent.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on the costs of business.