If you decide to give your relationship another chance
We will suspend child support for six months if parents decide to get back together.
It will be as though the child support assessment has ended. No child support will
be payable, unless there are arrears, and no new outstanding payments will accumulate.
If you are the receiving parent, you can choose to end the assessment earlier in the
reconciliation if you wish. If you are still together after six months, we will
automatically end the child support assessment.
If one of you has another child support assessment with someone else, the children
who are living with you will be treated as
relevant dependent children in that assessment.
If you are a Centrelink customer and
have a child support assessment, you need to tell both us and Centrelink. Centrelink
will need to know your new income details and any other changes in your circumstances
to reassess your family assistance and/or income support.
If you separate again
If you separate again within six months and the receiving parent didn’t already
choose to end the assessment, either parent can reinstate the assessment by simply
telling us you have separated again. The paying parent will only start paying child
support from the new date of separation.
If you receive a family assistance payment
If you get back together with your partner, your Family Tax Benefit Part A will
be assessed on you and your partner’s income. Depending on your income, you may
not be entitled to receive Family Tax Benefit Part B. Child support will not be
collected and won’t affect your Family Tax Benefit Part A amount, unless
you receive child support from another paying parent.
If you separate again within six months
- your child support will affect your Family Tax Benefit Part A immediately from
the new date of separation
- and we previously collected child
support for you, we will restart collecting again; your Family Tax Benefit
Part A will be assessed on the child support collected
- and you previously collected child support privately, you
need to collect child support from the other parent straight away; your Family Tax
Benefit Part A will be assessed on the amount of child support you are entitled
to receive.
If you do not apply for a child support assessment or request an exemption from
applying for a child support assessment, within 13 weeks, you will only receive
the base rate of Family Tax Benefit Part A for your children from that relationship.
To suspend, end or reinstate your child support assessment call us on 131
272.