Citation, commencement and interpretation

1. —(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Child Support (Voluntary Payments) Regulations 2000 and shall come into force on the day on which section 28J of the Act as inserted by the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 comes into force.

(2) In these Regulations—

• “the Act" means the Child Support Act 1991;

• “debit card" means a card, operating as a substitute for a cheque, that can be used to obtain cash or to make a payment at a point of sale whereby the card holder’s bank or building society account is debited without deferment of payment;

• ...

• “the qualifying child’s home" means the home in which the qualifying child resides with the person with care ...; and

• “relevant person" means—

  (a)

  a person with care;

  (b)

  a non-resident parent;

  (c)

  a parent who is treated as a non-resident parent under regulation 50 of the Child Support Maintenance Calculation Regulations 2012 ;

  (d)

  where the application for a maintenance calculation is made by a child under section 7 of the Act, that child,

• in respect of whom a maintenance calculation has been applied for, ... or is or has been in force.

Voluntary payment

2. —(1) A payment counts as a voluntary payment if it is—

(a) made in accordance with section 28J(2) and (4) of the Act;

(b) of a type to which regulation 3 applies;

(c) made on or after the effective date of the maintenance calculation made, or which would be made but for the Secretary of State’s decision not to make one, ... ; and

(d) a payment in relation to which evidence or verification of a type to which regulation 4 applies is provided, if the Secretary of State so requires.

(2) Where the Secretary of State is considering whether a payment is a voluntary payment, he may invite representations from a relevant person.

Types of payment

3. This regulation applies to a payment made by the non-resident parent—

(a) by any of the following methods—

(i) in cash;

(ii) by standing order;

(iii) by any other method which requires one person to give his authority for payments to be made from an account of his to an account of another on specific dates during the period for which the authority is in force and without the need for any further authority from him;

(iv) by an arrangement whereby one person gives his authority for payments to be made from an account of his, or on his behalf, to another person or to an account of that other person;

(v) by cheque or postal order; or

(vi) by debit card, and

(b) which is, or is in respect of,—

(i) a payment in lieu of child support maintenance and which is paid to the person with care;

(ii) a mortgage or loan taken out on the security of the property which is the qualifying child’s home where that mortgage or loan was taken out to facilitate the purchase of, or to pay for essential repairs or improvements to, that property;

(iii) rent on the property which is the qualifying child’s home;

(iv) mains-supplied gas, water or electricity charges at the qualifying child’s home;

(v) council tax payable by the person with care in relation to the qualifying child’s home;

(vi) essential repairs to the heating system in the qualifying child’s home; or

(vii) repairs which are essential to maintain the fabric of the qualifying child’s home.

Evidence or verification of payment

4. This regulation applies to—

(a) evidence provided by the non-resident parent in the form of—

(i) a bank statement;

(ii) a duplicate of a cashed cheque;

(iii) a receipt from the payee; or

(iv) a receipted bill or invoice; or

(b) verification orally or in writing from the person with care.