Amendment of the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011
15. In regulation 42 of the Student Support Regulations—
(a)in paragraph (1), after sub-paragraph (g) insert—
“(ga)“preceding financial year” means the financial year immediately preceding the relevant year;
(gb)“prior financial year” means the financial year immediately preceding the preceding financial year;
(gc)“relevant year” means the academic year of the course in respect of which the eligible student’s dependants’ income falls to be assessed;
(gd)“residual income” means taxable income after the application of paragraph (5) (in the case of an eligible student’s partner) or paragraph (6) (in the case of an eligible student’s adult dependants);
(ge)“taxable income” means, in respect of the prior financial year, a person’s taxable income from all sources computed for the purposes of—
(i)the Income Tax Acts;
(ii)the income tax legislation of another Member State which applies to the person’s income; or
(iii)where the legislation of more than one Member State applies to the period, the legislation under which the Secretary of State considers the person will pay the largest amount of tax in that period,
except that no account is taken of income referred to in paragraph (1A) paid to another party.”;
(b)after paragraph (1), insert—
“(1A) The income referred to in this paragraph is any benefits under a pension arrangement pursuant to an order made under section 23 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973(1) which includes provision made by virtue of sections 25B(4) and 25E(3) of that Act or pension benefits under Part 1 of Schedule 5 to the Civil Partnership Act 2004(2) which includes provision made by virtue of Parts 6 and 7 of that Schedule.”;
(c)in paragraph (2)—
(i)omit the words “subject to paragraph (3)”;
(ii)for “for the academic year in question” substitute “(for the relevant year for the purposes of regulation 44(2)(b) and for the prior financial year for the purposes of regulation 47(7))”;
(d)in paragraph (3)—
(i)before the words “Where an eligible student” insert “Subject to paragraph (3A),”;
(ii)for the words “net income is the net income calculated in accordance with paragraph (2)”, substitute “residual income is”;
(e)after paragraph (3), insert—
“(3A) Paragraph (3) applies where—
(a)the current course begins before 1st August 2013;
(b)the student transfers to the current course pursuant to regulation 7 on or after 1st August 2013 from a designated course beginning before 1st August 2013;
(c)the current course is a full-time honours degree course beginning on or after 1st August 2013 which, disregarding any intervening vacation, the student begins immediately after ceasing to attend a full-time course mentioned in paragraph 2, 3 or 4 of Schedule 2 or a full-time foundation or ordinary degree course, which started on or after 1st September 2012, having achieved a qualification; or
(d)the current course is an end-on course of the kind described in paragraph (e) of the definition of an end-on course in regulation 2.”;
(f)after paragraph (4), insert—
“(5) An eligible student’s partner’s residual income is determined in accordance with paragraph 6 of Schedule 4.
(6) An eligible student’s adult dependants’ residual income is determined in accordance with paragraph 5 of Schedule 4 (other than sub-paragraphs (8), (9) and (10) of paragraph 5), references to the parent being construed as references to the eligible student’s adult dependants.”.