The Child Support Agency and Family Assistance Office alignment of care
The Australian Government recently announced plans to improve the process and align
the rules used for determining care levels for separated parents who are both child
support and family assistance customers.
What is alignment of care?
At the moment, the Family Assistance Office and the Child Support Agency (CSA) use
different rules to determine the level of care used to calculate your family assistance
and child support payments.
The alignment of care will allow a single determination of care, using one set of
rules, to be made for both family assistance and child support purposes.
If you’re a separated parent you will be able have your care determination, or any
update to your care arrangements, made by one agency, either the Family Assistance
Office or the CSA. The other agency will simply recognise the change and update
your details.
However, until 1 July 2010, you will still need to tell both CSA and the Family
Assistance Office about any changes to your care arrangements. If you do not tell
both offices about the change, your child support assessment or Family Tax Benefit
calculation may continue to be calculated on your previous care arrangements.
Why is the CSA and Family Assistance Office aligning care?
Aligning the determinations of care between the CSA and the Family Assistance Office
will provide consistency in decisions about the level of care being provided by
parents for customers dealing with both agencies.
By aligning the rules for determining care levels, the Government aims to reduce
conflict between parents and remove the strain put on parents who have to deal with
two agencies, and two different sets of rules.
When will the changes be implemented?
These changes will be implemented from 1 July 2010. It will apply to all care determinations
made on or after 1 July 2010.
Why do I have to wait until 1 July 2010?
There will need to be changes to the family assistance and child support legislation
to provide for the new alignment of the care rules.
Also, CSA and the Family Assistance Office need to make sure the systems are in
place to allow the automatic transfer of your care arrangements between each agency.
What do I need to do?
You don’t need to do anything. These changes will be implemented from 1 July 2010.
These changes will apply to all new care determinations made on or after 1 July
2010.
Until 1 July 2010, you will still need to tell both CSA and the Family Assistance
Office about any changes to your care arrangements.
Where can I get more information?
More information and a fact sheet is available online at www.fahcsia.gov.au