The Universal Credit (Digital Service) Amendment Regulations 2014

Universal credit - childcare costs

2.—(1) The Universal Credit Regulations 2013(1) are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 33 (the childcare costs condition)—

(a) before paragraph (1)(a) insert—

“(za) the claimant has paid charges for relevant childcare that are attributable to that assessment period (see regulation 34A) and those charges have been reported to the Secretary of State before the end of that assessment period;”

(b) at the beginning of paragraph (1)(a), for the words “the claimant pays charges in that period for relevant childcare in respect of” substitute “the charges are in respect of”;

(c) for paragraph (2) substitute—

“(2) The late reporting of charges for relevant childcare may be accepted in the same circumstances as late notification of a change of circumstances may be accepted under regulation 36 of the Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2013(2) and, in such cases, subject to regulation 34A below, all or part of any such charges may be taken into account in any assessment period to which they relate.”.

(3) In regulation 34(1)(amount of childcare costs element), for sub-paragraph (a) substitute—

“(a) 70% of the charges paid for relevant childcare that are attributable to that assessment period; or”.

(4) After regulation 34 insert—

“Charges attributable to an assessment period

34A.— (1) Charges paid for relevant childcare are attributable to an assessment period where—

(a) those charges are paid in that assessment period for relevant childcare in respect of that assessment period; or

(b) those charges are paid in that assessment period for relevant childcare in respect of a previous assessment period;or

(c) those charges were paid in either of the two previous assessment periods for relevant childcare in respect of that assessment period.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(c), where a claimant pays charges for relevant childcare in advance, the amount which they have paid in respect of any assessment period is to be calculated as follows:

Step 1

Take the total amount of the advance payment (leaving out of account any amount referred to in regulation 34(2)).

Step 2

Apply the formula—

Where—

PA is the amount resulting from step 1;

D is the total number of days covered by the payment referred to in step 1, and

AP is the number of days covered by the payment which also fall within the assessment period in question.

(3) In this regulation, a reference to an assessment period in which charges are paid, or in respect of which charges are paid, includes any month preceding the commencement of the award that begins on the same day as each assessment period in relation to a claimant’s current award.”.

(1)

S.I. 2013/376.

(2)

S.I. 2013/381.