What Does Child Support Not Cover in Australia? The child support amount in Australia is usually insufficient to fund costs such as extracurricular activities, private tuition fees, private health insurance and additional costs due to a child's special needs.
Parents can also make a Child Support Agreement for the payment of school fees. Payment of school fees can either reduce the child support assessment or can be in addition to the periodic child support payments assessed by the Department of Human Services.
In Australia shared custody means that the non-residential parent pays child support to the residential parent. In the case of a 50/50 split, the higher earner usually pays child support to the lower earner to ensure the children's standard of living is the same in both locations.
Normally child support stops when your child turns 18. If your child's in secondary study, you can apply to extend it to the end of the school year.
If you don't pay your child support in full and on time, we may apply penalties on the outstanding amount. You pay the penalty amount to the Australian Government, not to the receiving parent. If you pay the overdue child support, we may reduce or remove the penalty from your account.
You can calculate the maximum child support amount using the combined income of both parents, up to 2.5 times the annual equivalent of the Male Total Average Weekly Earnings, as well as the Costs of Children Table.
If you have a Child Support Case
If you have a child support debt we may issue a Departure Prohibition Order. It'll stop you from leaving Australia until you either: pay your debt in full. enter into an acceptable payment arrangement.
Either parent can apply to end the assessment while the agreement is suspended. This applies only when the assessment was started by a child support agreement.
Alternating weekends: A common 80/20 arrangement, the alternating-weekends schedule has the child live primarily with one parent and stay with the other parent every other weekend.
The most common arrangement is that the mother takes 66-84% custody of the child or children, while the father takes 14-34%.
In Australia, if you and the other parent cannot come to an agreement on custody, then either parent can apply to the court for a custodial order. Before making a decision, the court will need to be satisfied that such an order is in the best interests of the child.
There are no set rules or regulations as to what child support payments can and cannot be used for in Australia. Ordinarily, the amount might be used to cover expenses involved with raising a child, such as food, clothing, housing, medical costs, school costs, and other activity-related costs.
Additional expenses
Expenses such as private school fees, extracurricular activities and orthodontic treatment are not taken into account under the assessment. Parents with such expenses can apply to the Child Support Agency (CSA) for a change to the assessment based on the 'special circumstances' in their matter.
When we collect and transfer your payments, you may want to tell us about a private child support payment that was made. We call these payments extraordinary payments or non-agency payments (NAPs).
Garnishing Bank Accounts
Services Australia is also able to apply to place a notice on bank accounts to recover unpaid child support where no payment arrangements are in place. This would mean that any significant funds in a payee parent's bank account may be collected to pay any outstanding arrears.
In Australia, parents have a legal responsibility to financially support their children, whether they are biological, adoptive or same sex parents. Parents can make an agreement about child support or they can apply to the Services Australia (Child Support) for an administrative assessment.
A DPO is an international travel ban, which gives Border Force the power to stop a person who owes child support at the airport. DPOs are made administratively by the Department of Human Services (Child Support), without the need to go to Court.
Where you have a private arrangement in place, salary packaging will not generally have any impact on your child support payments. Salary packaging may impact the amount of benefit you receive from Centrelink, and other financial payments such as Child Support.
Does Child Support Change if my ex-spouse remarries? No. Only the income of the parents of your children is taken into account in the assessment of your child support payments. Furthermore, a new spouse of a child support payer is not responsible for making child support payments.
The Child Support Agency can use a Section 72A notice to gain access to superannuation in some limited circumstances.
This means that child support payments are based on both parents' income and how much more the higher-earning parent makes, but there is no law that caps child support at any specific dollar amount.
Child support scheme
Under Australian law, separated parents (including same sex parents) have a duty to provide a proper level of financial support for their children. The scheme provides a flexible way of ensuring that children are supported by their parents, often with the assistance of government benefits.