Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department issues on whether a Scottish Higher National Certificate is advanced education for child maintenance purposes.

The Department publishes the Child Maintenance Decision Makers’ Guide on the gov.uk website. The guidance provides a list, although not exhaustive, along with information regarding advanced and non-advanced education and training. This information can be found here.

A Scottish National Certificate is equivalent to a National Higher Certificate (HNC) and counts as advanced education.

Child Maintenance payments cease when a child leaves full-time non-advanced education (non-advanced means up to A level or higher, or NVQ or SVQ Level 3 and below). Courses of degree level and above, Diploma of Higher Education, Higher National Certificate, Diploma of Higher Education or, NVQ and SVQ Level 4 and above, count as advanced education.