The Child Support (Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases) Regulations 1992

Regulation 14

SCHEDULE 3 ELIGIBLE HOUSING COSTS

Eligible housing costs for the purposes of determining exempt income and protected income

1.  Subject to the following provisions of this Schedule, the following payments in respect of the provision of a home shall be eligible to be taken into account as housing costs for the purposes of these Regulations—

(a) payments of, or by way of, rent;

(b) mortgage interest payments;

(c) interest payments under a hire purchase agreement to buy a home;

(d) interest payments on loans for repairs and improvements to the home[F1 , including interest on a loan for any service charge imposed to meet the cost of such repairs and improvements;]

(e) payments by way of ground rent or in Scotland, payments by way of feu duty;

(f) payments under a co-ownership scheme;

(g) payments in respect of, or in consequence of, the use and occupation of the home;

(h) where the home is a tent, payments in respect of the tent and the site on which it stands;

(i) payments in respect of a licence or permission to occupy the home (whether or not board is provided);

(j) payments by way of mesne profits or, in Scotland, violent profits;

(k) payments of, or by way of, service charges, the payment of which is a condition on which the right to occupy the home depends;

(l) payments under or relating to a tenancy or licence of a Crown tenant;

(m) mooring charges payable for a houseboat;

(n) where the home is a caravan or a mobile home, payments in respect of the site on which it stands;

(o) any contribution payable by a parent resident in an almshouse provided by a housing association which is either a charity of which particulars are entered in the register of charities established under section 4 of the Charities Act 1960 M1 (register of charities) or an exempt charity within the meaning of that Act, which is a contribution towards the cost of maintaining that association’s almshouses and essential services in them;

(p) payments under a rental purchase agreement, that is to say an agreement for the purchase of a home under which the whole or part of the purchase price is to be paid in more than one instalment and the completion of the purchase is deferred until the whole or a specified part of the purchase price has been paid;

(q) where, in Scotland, the home is situated on or pertains to a croft within the meaning of section 3(1) of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1955 M2 , the payment in respect of the croft land;

(r) where the home is provided by an employer (whether under a condition or term in a contract of service or otherwise), payments to that employer in respect of the home, including payments made by the employer deducting the payment in question from the remuneration of the parent in question;

F2 (s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(t) payments in respect of a loan taken out to pay off another loan but only to the extent that it was incurred for that purpose and only to the extent to which the interest on that other loan would have been met under this paragraph.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in Sch. 3 para. 1(d) inserted (5.4.1993) by The Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1993 (S.I. 1993/913), regs. 1(1), 33(a)

F2 Sch. 3 para. 1(s) omitted (5.4.1993) by virtue of The Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1993 (S.I. 1993/913), regs. 1(1), 33(b)

Marginal Citations

M1 1960 c.58; subsections (8) and (10) of section 4 were amended by section 1(4) and (5) and Schedule 2, Parts I and II of the Education Act 1973 (c.16).

M2 1955 c.21; section 3(1) was amended by section 14 of the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 1976 (c.21).

Loans for repairs and improvements to the home

2.  For the purposes of paragraph 1(d) “repairs and improvements" means major repairs necessary to maintain the fabric of the home and any of the following measures undertaken with a view to improving its fitness for occupation—

(a) installation of a fixed bath, shower, wash basin or lavatory, and necessary associated plumbing;

(b) damp proofing measures;

(c) provision or improvement of ventilation and natural lighting;

(d) provision of electric lighting and sockets;

(e) provision or improvement of drainage facilities;

(f) improvement of the structural condition of the home;

(g) improvements to the facilities for the storing, preparation and cooking of food;

(h) provision of heating, including central heating;

(i) provision of storage facilities for fuel and refuse;

(j) improvements to the insulation of the home;

(k) other improvements which the child support officer considers reasonable in the circumstances.

Exempt income: additional provisions relating to eligible housing costs

3.—(1) The additional provisions made by this paragraph shall have effect only for the purpose of calculating or estimating exempt income.

(2) Subject to sub-paragraph (6), where the home of an absent parent or, as the case may be, a parent with care, is subject to a mortgage or charge and that parent makes periodical payments to reduce the capital secured by that mortgage or charge of an amount provided for in accordance with the terms thereof, the amount of those payments shall be eligible to be taken into account as the housing costs of that parent.

(3) Subject to sub-paragraph (6), where the home of an absent parent or, as the case may be, a parent with care, is held under an agreement and certain payments made under that agreement are included as housing costs by virtue of paragraph 1 of this Schedule, the weekly amount of any other payments which are made in accordance with that agreement by the parent in order either—

(a) to reduce his liability under that agreement; or

(b) to acquire the home to which it relates,

shall also be eligible to be taken into account as housing costs.

(4) Where a policy of insurance has been obtained and retained for the purpose of discharging a mortgage or charge on the home of the parent in question, the amount of the premiums paid under that policy shall be eligible to be taken into account as a housing cost.

[F3 (5) Where a policy of insurance has been obtained and retained for the purpose of discharging a mortgage or charge on the home of the parent in question and also for the purpose of accruing profits on the maturity of the policy, there shall be eligible to be taken into account as a housing cost—

(a) where the sum secured by the mortgage or charge does not exceed £60,000, the whole of the premiums paid under that policy; and

(b) where the sum secured by the mortgage or charge exceeds £60,000, the part of the premiums paid under that policy which are necessarily incurred for the purpose of discharging the mortgage or charge or, where that part cannot be ascertained, 0.0277 per centum of the amount secured by the mortgage or charge.]

(6) For the purposes of sub-paragraphs (2) and (3), housing costs shall not include—

(a) any payment of arrears or payments in excess of those which are required to be made under or in respect of a mortgage, charge or agreement to which either of those sub-paragraphs relate;

(b) payments under any second or subsequent mortgage on the home to the extent that they are attributable to arrears or would otherwise not be eligible to be taken into account as housing costs;

(c) premiums payable in respect of any policy of insurance against loss caused by the destruction of or damage to any building or land.

Textual Amendments

F3 Sch. 3 para. 3(5) substituted (7.2.1994) by The Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/227), regs. 1, 4(8)

Conditions relating to eligible housing costs

4.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this paragraph the housing costs referred to in this Schedule shall be included as housing costs only where—

(a) they are incurred in relation to the parent’s home;

(b) the parent or, if he is one of a family, he or a member of his family, is responsible for those costs; and

(c) the liability to meet those costs is to a person other than a member of the same household.

(2) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1)(b) a parent shall be treated as responsible for housing costs where—

(a) because the person liable to meet those costs is not doing so, he has to meet those costs in order to continue to live in the home and either he was formerly the partner of the person liable, or he is some other person whom it is reasonable to treat as liable to meet those costs; or

(b) he pays a share of those costs in a case where—

(i) he is living in a household with other persons;

(ii) those other persons include persons who are not close relatives of his or his partner;

(iii) a person who is not such a close relative is responsible for those costs under the preceding provisions of this paragraph or has an equivalent responsibility for housing expenditure; and

(iv) it is reasonable in the circumstances to treat him as sharing that responsibility.

Accommodation also used for other purposes

5.  Where amounts are payable in respect of accommodation which consists partly of residential accommodation and partly of other accommodation, only such proportion thereof as is attributable to residential accommodation shall be eligible to be taken into account as housing costs.

Ineligible service and fuel charges

6.  Housing costs shall not include—

(a) where the costs are inclusive of ineligible service charges within the meaning ofparagraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 M3 (ineligible service charges), the amounts attributable to those ineligible service charges or, where that amount is not separated from or separately identified within the housing costs to be met under this paragraph, such part of the payments made in respect of those housing costs which are fairly attributable to the provision of those ineligible services having regard to the costs of comparable services;

(b) where the costs are inclusive of any of the items mentioned in paragraph 5(2) ofSchedule 1 to the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 (payment in respect of fuel charges), the deductions prescribed in that paragraph unless the parent provides evidence on which the actual or approximate amount of the service charge for fuel may be estimated, in which case the estimated amount; and

(c) charges for water, sewerage or allied environmental services and where the amount of such charges is not separately identified, such part of the charges in question as is attributable to those services.

Marginal Citations

M3 S.I. 1987/1971.

Interpretation

7.  In this Schedule except where the context otherwise requires—

• “close relative" means a parent, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, step-parent, step-son, step-daughter, brother, sister, or the spouse of any of the preceding persons or, if that person is one of an unmarried couple, the other member of that couple;

• “co-ownership scheme" means a scheme under which the dwelling is let by a housing association and the tenant, or his personal representative, will, under the terms of the tenancy agreement or of the agreement under which he became a member of the association, be entitled, on his ceasing to be a member and subject to any conditions stated in either agreement, to a sum calculated by reference directly or indirectly to the value of the dwelling;

• “housing association" has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(1) of the Housing Association Act 1985 M4 .

Marginal Citations

M4 1985 c.69.