Indicative maintenance calculations
128. After Article 11 of the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 insert—
“Maintenance agreements: indicative calculations
11A.—(1) A person with care or non-resident parent in relation to any qualifying child or qualifying children may apply to the Department for an indicative calculation with respect to that child or any of those children.
(2) An indicative calculation is a calculation of the amount of child support maintenance which the Department considers would in accordance with Article 13 be fixed by a maintenance calculation if such a calculation were made with respect to the child or children in question.
(3) An indicative calculation does not create any liability on any person to pay child support maintenance.
(4) The Department may limit the number of applications it will accept under this Article in any particular case in such manner as it thinks fit.
(5) Where a person who is alleged to be the parent of a child with respect to whom an application for an indicative calculation has been made denies being one of the child’s parents, the Department shall not make the indicative calculation on the assumption that the person is one of the child’s parents unless the case falls within paragraph (b) of Case A3 in Article 27(2).”