Children & Parenting
6. Child Support
Authors: Staff Legal Eagle
Firm / Chambers:
Last updated: 30 Jun 2015
- Parents are still financially responsible for their children regardless of the breakdown of the relationship.
- Child support is the payment made by one parent to the other for the maintenance of the children. It is usually payable until the children turns 18 years old but there are some circumstances when it may stop earlier than this.
- The law says that if you are the primary carer of children then you can make a claim for child support from the other parent.
- This process is managed by the Child Support Agency through the Department of Human Services.
- While you may wish to discuss child support issues with your ex-partner during negotiations, arrangements about child support cannot be included in court orders whether by consent or not. All child support assessments and agreements are handled by the Child Support Agency. The Family Court can only make court orders for child support if the Child Support Agency cannot make an assessment. If the court makes a child maintenance order you must register it with the Child Support Agency within 14 days.
- In most cases the Agency will do an assessment of you and your ex-partners circumstances. This means they will look at both of your financial situations, what the living arrangements and care arrangements are for your children and the number of your children.
- If you want to make a claim for child support then you need to contact the Child Support Agency. They will need a lot of personal information before they can process your application including birth dates, addresses and information about your income and that of your ex-partner. You can contact the Child Support Agency (Department of Human Services) on 131 272 or visit their website which has child support calculators available: https://childsupportapplication.humanservices.gov.au.
- There is no requirement that you apply to the Child Support Agency for child support. You and your ex-partner can come to an agreement about the arrangements for child support instead.
- If you can agree you may choose to make an informal verbal agreement or enter into a child support agreement.
- There are two types of child support agreements:
- Binding Child Support Agreements where both parties have had independent legal advice; and
- Limited Child Support Agreements which do not require legal advice.
- The Child Support Agency will not accept a Limited Child Support agreement unless you have undergone an assessment and the agreement is equal to or more than the amount of child support that would have been paid under the assessment.
- A Binding Child Support agreement does not require an assessment and can be for any amount that the parents agree to.
- You will need to understand the different types of agreement and get legal advice about all your options so that you fully understand all your rights and responsibilities.
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