The Child Support and Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

Amendment of the Child Support (Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases) Regulations

3.—(1) The Child Support (Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992(1) shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (7).

(2) In regulation 1(2) (citation, commencement and interpretation) –

(a) after the definition of “the Child Benefit Rates Regulations”(2) there shall be inserted the following definition –

““child tax credit” means a child tax credit under section 8 of the Tax Credits Act 2002;”;

(b) the definition of “disabled person’s tax credit”(3) shall be omitted; and

(c) for the definition of “working families' tax credit”(4) there shall be substituted the following definition –

““working tax credit” means a working tax credit under section 10 of the Tax Credits Act 2002;”.

(3) In regulation 10A(5) (assessable income: working families' tax credit or disabled person’s tax credit paid to or in respect of a parent with care or an absent parent) in the heading and in paragraph (1) for “working families' tax credit or disabled person’s tax credit” there shall be substituted “working tax credit”.

(4) In regulation 11(2)(a)(6) (protected income) after head (v) there shall be added the following head –

“(vi) there shall be taken into account any child tax credit which is payable to the absent parent or his partner; and”.

(5) In Schedule 1 (calculation of N and M) –

(a) in paragraphs 2(1A) and 5(5)(7) for “working families' tax credit or disabled person’s tax credit” there shall be substituted “working tax credit or child tax credit”;

(b) in paragraph 7 sub-paragraphs (2) to (5)(8) shall be omitted;

(c) in paragraph 12(e) for the words from “under” to the end there shall be substituted “under regulation 62(2A)(b) of the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987(9) towards such costs;”;

(d) after paragraph 14 there shall be inserted the following paragraph –

“14A.— (1) Subject to sub-paragraph (2), payments to a person of working tax credit shall be treated as the income of the parent who has qualified for them by his normal engagement in remunerative work at the rate payable at the effective date.

(2) Where working tax credit is payable and the amount which is payable has been calculated by reference to the earnings of the absent parent and another person –

(a) if during the period which is used to calculate his earnings under paragraph 2 or, as the case may be, paragraph 5, the normal weekly earnings of that parent exceed those of the other person, the amount payable by way of working tax credit shall be treated as the income of that parent;

(b) if during that period the normal weekly earnings of that parent equal those of the other person, half of the amount payable by way of working tax credit shall be treated as the income of that parent; and

(c) if during that period the normal weekly earnings of that parent are less than those of that other person, the amount payable by way of working tax credit shall not be treated as the income of that parent.”; and

(e) paragraph 16 shall be amended as follows –

(i) in sub-paragraph (1) for “(6)” there shall be substituted “(7)”, and

(ii) after sub-paragraph (6) there shall be added the following sub-paragraph –

“(7) This paragraph shall not apply to payments of working tax credit referred to in paragraph 14A.”.

(6) In Schedule 2 (amounts to be disregarded when calculating or estimating N and M) –

(a) in paragraph 22 for the words from “paragraph 19” to the end there shall be substituted “paragraph 19 of Schedule 9 to the Income Support (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987(10) which would have applied if he had been in receipt of income support.”;

(b) after paragraph 47C(11) there shall be inserted the following paragraph –

“47D.   Any payment of child tax credit.”; and

(c) after paragraph 47D there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“47E.   Any payment made by an eligible person relating to housing support services in respect of which the Northern Ireland Housing Executive has paid a grant to that person under Article 4(1) of the Housing Support Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2002(12).”.

(7) In Schedule 4(13) (cases where child support maintenance is not to be payable) paragraph (a)(xi) shall be omitted.

(1)

S.R. 1992 No. 341; relevant amending rules are S.R. 1993 No. 164, S.R. 1995 Nos. 162 and 475, S.R. 1996 Nos. 288, 317 and 590 and S.R. 1999 Nos. 246 (C. 20) and 385; S.R. 1992 No. 341 is revoked, with savings, by regulation 15 of S.R. 2001 No. 18

(2)

The definition of “the Child Benefit Rates Regulations” was inserted by regulation 7(2) of S.R. 1996 No. 288

(3)

The definition of “disabled person’s tax credit” was substituted for the definition of “disability working allowance” by regulation 2(3)(a) of S.R. 1999 No. 385

(4)

The definition of “working families' tax credit” was inserted by regulation 2(3)(b) of S.R. 1999 No. 385

(5)

Regulation 10A was inserted by regulation 3(3) of S.R. 1996 No. 590 and amended by Article 9(5) of S.R. 1999 No. 246 (C. 20) and regulation 2 of S.R. 1999 No. 385

(6)

Regulation 11(2) was amended by regulation 9(7)(b) of S.R. 1995 No. 162 and regulation 4(5)(b) of S.R. 1995 No. 475

(7)

Paragraph 2(1A) was inserted by regulation 3(7)(b)(ii) of S.R. 1996 No. 590 and amended by Article 9(9)(b)(i) of S.R. 1999 No. 246 (C. 20) and regulation 2 of S.R. 1999 No. 385; paragraph 5(5) was added by regulation 3(7)(d) of S.R. 1996 No. 590 and amended by Article 9(9)(e)(i) of S.R. 1999 No. 246 (C. 20) and regulation 2 of S.R. 1999 No. 385

(8)

Sub-paragraphs (2) to (5) were amended by regulation 4(8)(b) of S.R. 1996 No. 317 and regulation 2(1) of S.R. 1999 No. 385

(9)

S.R. 1987 No. 459; regulation 62(2A) was inserted by regulation 7(a) of S.R. 1992 No. 147, substituted by regulation 3(3)(b) of S.R. 1999 No. 317 and amended by regulation 3(2) of S.R. 2001 No. 278 and regulation 3 of S.R. 2002 No. 222

(10)

Paragraph 19 was substituted by regulation 4(9)(b) of S.R. 1994 No. 77 and amended by regulation 2(12)(c) of S.R. 1995 No. 86 and Article 16(9) of S.R. 2002 No. 99

(11)

Paragraph 47C was inserted by regulation 3(8)(e) of S.R. 1996 No. 590

(12)

S.I. 2002/3154 (N.I. 8)

(13)

Schedule 4 was amended by regulation 5(14) of S.R. 1993 No. 164, regulation 9(18) of S.R. 1995 No. 162 and regulation 2(2) of S.R. 1999 No. 385