Child Support Scheme

"Men's Business" is for men in the Goldfields to share information and to
make life easier in many areas, including understanding child support. For
details contact Lester Gaebler on 0419 953 530.

For assistance with Child Support in the Eastern Goldfields, contact the Child Support Agency:

13 11 41 Change of Assessment Team
13 29 19 Complaints
13 11 07 CSA information Service
13 14 50 Translating & Interpreting Service

PO Box 9815
Cannington WA 6987

To date there are no CSA officers in the Kalgoorlie Centrelink Office. However, CSA does visit Kalgoorlie on a regular basis, please contact the Perth Office for details.

To date there are no CSA officers in the Kalgoorlie Centrelink Office. CSA does visit Kalgoorlie from time to time, please contact the Perth Office for details.

You can contact your local office of the State Department of Family and Children's Services for information about child care, vacation care and other children's services, community funding, family support, financial counselling and adoption services.

Toll free: 1800 622 258

ESPERANCE
92 Dempster Street
Esperance WA 6450
(08) 9071 2566

KALGOORLIE
Cnr Cheetham Street & Boulder Road
Kalgoorlie WA 6430
(08) 9022 0700

LAVERTON
August Street
Laverton WA 6440
(08) 9031 1104

LEONORA
Lot 40 Cnr Tower & Rajah Streets
Leonora WA 6438
(08) 9037 6132

NORSEMAN
80 Prinsep Street
Norseman WA 6443
(08) 9039 1129

SOUTHERN CROSS
11a Antaras Street
Southern Cross WA 6427
(08) 9049 1016


The Aims of the Child Support Scheme

The Australian Child Support Scheme was introduced in 1988 to "strike a fairer balance between public and private forms of support to alleviate the poverty of sole parent families."1
The Scheme aims to ensure that:

• parents share in the cost of supporting their children according to their capacity;
• adequate support is available to all children not living with both parents;
• Commonwealth involvement and expenditure is limited to the minimum necessary for ensuring children's needs are met;
• work incentives for both parents to participate in the labour force are not impaired; and
• the overall arrangements are non-intrusive to personal privacy and are simple, flexible and efficient.2

1 Cabinet Sub-Committee on Maintenance, Child Support: discussion paper on child maintenance (1986), p.14.
2 An examination of the operation and effectiveness of the Child Support Scheme, Government Response to the Report by the Joint Select Committee on Certain Family Law Issues, November 1997, p.3.


The Child Support Formula

The CSA uses a formula to calculate the amount of child support to be paid. The basic formula is varied where the care of the children is shared, or where the payee has income greater than average weekly earnings (AWE). Some changes to the formula occurred from 1 July 1999, so this section details the way the formula worked before 1 July 1999 and from that date.

The Formula Until 30 June 1999

Up until 30 June 1999 the formula was used in the following way:

The liable parent’s taxable income:
1. Less an allowance for living expenses and for each natural or adopted dependent child living with the liable parent;
2. Less the custodian’s excess income over average weekly earnings (allowance was made for child care costs). After making these deductions a percentage of the remaining income was paid as support. The percentage varied according to the number of children:

The basic formula used to assess the annual rate of child support was:
{ (A – B) – C } x D = E

Where:
A is the child support income amount (taxable income)
B is the exempted income amount
C is the amount of payee income above the disregarded income amount
D is the child support percentage
E is the amount payable by the payer

Taxable income used in the child support formula was the income shown on the payer’s tax return for the financial year before last. For child support purposes the maximum taxable income used in the formula in 1998-99 was $96,968.

An uplift factor was applied to the taxable income amount to adjust for changes in salary and wages levels. In 1998-99 this factor was 1.040.

A payer's exempt income was an allowance for living expenses and was deducted before the child support percentage was applied. It was based on the single rate of social security pension. If the payer had care of other natural or adopted children, the exempt amount was increased to twice the married pension rate plus an allowance for each child depending on their age (see Table 1.2).
If the payee’s income was more than the disregarded income amount4 the payer’s liability was reduced. The payee's disregarded income amount is that part of the payee's income below AWE, plus an allowance for each child under 12 years of age.



If either parent's income had decreased by 15 per cent or more since the relevant year of income, they could apply for the assessment to be varied to reflect their current income, they could apply for the assessment to be varied to reflect their current income.

4 The "disregarded income amount" recognises that the carer makes a significant contribution to the care of the children covered by the assessment.

The Formula From 1 July 1999

From 1 July 1999 the following changes were made to the child support formula. Rental losses and exempt foreign employment income are now added back into the liable parent’s taxable income.

Secondly, if a carer’s child support income amount exceeds their disregarded income amount, then the liable parent’s adjusted income amount is reduced by 50 per cent of the carer’s excess income for the period concerned. Thirdly, during the course of 1999-2000 the uplift factor is also being progressively phased out as liabilities are reassessed using the last year of income rather than income based on the second last year.

How the Child Support Scheme Works

Australian families may make child support arrangements in one of three ways:

• an entirely private arrangement between the parents which includes cases where child support is not sought - Self-Administration;
• registration with the Child Support Agency but with payment made directly between the parents - Private Collect; or
• registration and collection by the Child Support Agency - CSA Collect.

Registration with the CSA can proceed on the application of either parent, however only the payee can apply for child support to be collected. The application can be to register a court order, a child support agreement or for the CSA to issue an administrative assessment. However, from 1 July 1999 a parent liable to pay child support was also able to apply to the CSA for administrative assessment.

Where CSA collection is required, payers can make payments directly to the CSA. Alternatively, child support can be deducted from a payer's salary or wages in much the same way that income tax is deducted.

Where a payment is not made and the CSA is unable to come to a voluntary payment arrangement with the payer, the Registrar has a range of administrative enforcement powers available, including:

• deduction from salary and wages (51% or $293.20 million of all CSA collections were paid this way in 1998-99);
• interception of income tax refunds (9% or $48.74 million of all CSA collections were paid this way in 1998-99);
• collection of monies owed to the defaulting parent from third parties under Section 72A, e.g. accessing funds in savings accounts, superannuation funds and solicitors' trust accounts.

In addition, debts can be pursued through the courts to seek orders for sale of assets and property, or debts can be pursued by instituting bankruptcy proceedings.

Reprinted with kind poermission of Child Support Agency.
You should also check out the "Question and Answer" section of this site.