Secretary of State for Work and Pensions & Anor v Boyle & Anor

Where an interim child-support assessment is made because information is insufficient, the statutory scheme distinguishes between full-period recalculation and partial-period supersession. If sufficient information later enables a full assessment from the original effective date, that assessment must replace the interim assessment for the overlapping period and be backdated. If information covers only a later part, the interim assessment remains effective until the statutory cessation date and the new assessment operates prospectively. A liability order does not create an implied exception to that scheme. Tribunals must assess evidence lawfully and consider material explanations and the whole evidential record; adverse credibility findings based on misunderstanding non-co-operation or ignoring relevant evidence are errors of law.

A parent with care applied for child support in 1994. An interim maintenance assessment was made because the absent parent had not provided sufficient information. After information was supplied in 2000, the Child Support Agency made a lower full assessment and backdated it, reducing arrears despite an existing liability order.

The appeal tribunal directed that the interim assessment should continue until the information was received. Commissioner Angus upheld that decision. The Secretary of State appealed on the construction of the regulations and the sufficiency of the evidence for a full assessment from the original effective date.

1. Appeal allowed. The agreed construction of the Child Support (Maintenance Assessment Procedure) Regulations 1992 was correct. Under regulations 8D(1), 8D(1A), 8D(2) and 30A(2), where the Secretary of State has sufficient information to make a full maintenance assessment for the whole period beginning with the applicable effective date, the full assessment must replace the interim assessment for the overlapping period after 18 April 1995 and must be backdated.
2. Where the information enables an assessment only for a later part of the period, regulations 8D(5) to (7), 20(6) and 30A(1) apply. The interim assessment remains effective for the earlier period and ceases at the statutory date linked to receipt of the information. The new assessment operates from that date. Regulations 17(3) and 20(6) reflect the distinction between revision covering the whole period and supersession covering only a later period.
3. The existence of a liability order does not create an exception to regulation 8D(1). That paragraph contains no words supporting such an exception, and it cannot be created by implication. Farley v The Child Support Agency [2006] UKHL 31 recognised that a liability order may be made or enforced while an appeal is pending, although oppression must be considered. If the underlying assessment is later changed, the consequences of enforcement may have to be unravelled.
4. The appeal tribunal’s rejection of the absent parent’s evidence about housing costs resulted from material errors of law. His non-co-operation was not properly treated as conduct to his advantage because the interim assessment imposed a punitive rate and generated substantial arrears. The tribunal also failed to consider his later co-operation and his explanation that he had been told he was not the child’s father until DNA testing confirmed paternity.
5. The evidence was sufficient for this court to form its own view rather than remit the matter. The Secretary of State was entitled to accept the undocumented housing-cost evidence, given the reasonable explanation for the absence of documents, the otherwise acceptable evidence and the absence of anything intrinsically implausible. The full assessment could therefore be backdated to July 1995.

• Court of Appeal (Civil Division): Allowed the Secretary of State’s appeal and held that the full maintenance assessment could be backdated to the applicable effective date.
• Social Services Commission: Commissioner Angus, on 4 January 2007, upheld the appeal tribunal’s direction that the interim assessment should remain in force until the absent parent supplied sufficient information.