51 Recovery of arrears of contributions.E+W
(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 having jurisdiction in the place where he is for the time being residing may, on the application of the local authority who would have been entitled to receive payments under such an order, make an order (in this Act 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 the 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 sections 45(2) and (3), 47(4), 48 and 53 of this Act.
(4)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 12 of this Act, keep the local authority to whom the payments are to be made informed of his address; and if he fails to do so he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £10.