You receive child support but are not the parent

If you provide care for a child and you are not the parent, you can receive child support from both parents of the children if you apply for a child support assessment.

Child support is still worked out using both parents’ incomes, cost percentages and child support percentages — similar to how child support is worked out for parents. However, your income is not taken into account.

Applying for child support

A non–parent carer can apply for a child support assessment if all of the following applies:

If you apply for a child support assessment, you must apply against both parents except:

If one parent is not an Australian resident or there are special circumstances

If a non–parent carer asks for a child support assessment and one parent is not a resident of Australia or a reciprocating jurisdiction, or special circumstances apply, we still use the basic formula with one variation. After the available parent’s child support income is calculated, we double that income. We then apply the basic formula using that income.

Once we work out a final child support figure, we halve it to arrive at the amount of child support payable, and compare it with the parent’s multi–case cap if they have another child.

If one parent is deceased

If a non–parent carer applies for child support from one parent and the other parent is deceased, we use the parent’s income on its own before applying the basic formula.

Example: Ben, Jacki and Lisa

Ben and Jacki have two children, Tom, aged 4, and Shona, aged 2. Ben and Jacki separate and Tom and Shona live with Ben’s mother, Lisa, most of the time. Ben has regular care of Tom (equal to 24 per cent). Jacki has less than 14 per cent care of both children.

Ben has an adjusted taxable income of $45,000 and Jacki has an adjusted taxable income of $25,000. Neither Ben nor Jacki has a relevant dependent child or any other child support cases.

We work out Ben and Jacki's child support income by deducting the self-support amount of $18,252 * from each of their incomes.

  • Ben’s child support income is $26,748
  • Jacki’s child support income is $6,748

We work out Ben and Jacki’s combined child support income by adding together their child support incomes. Ben and Jacki’s combined child support income is $26,748 plus $6,748, which equals $33,496.

We work out each parent’s income percentage by dividing their child support income by their combined child support income.

  • For Ben this is $26,748 divided by $33,496 = 80 per cent
  • For Jacki this is $6,748 divided by $33,496 = 20 per cent

We work out Ben, Jacki and Lisa’s percentage of care of each child.

  • Ben has 24 per cent care of Tom and no care of Shona
  • Lisa has 76 per cent care of Tom and 100 per cent care of Shona
  • Jacki has no care of Tom and Shona

We work out Ben and Jacki’s child support percentage for each child by subtracting their cost percentage for that child from their income percentage.

Ben has an income percentage of 80 per cent:

  • We deduct 24 per cent (the care percentage) which gives a child support percentage of 56 per cent for Tom
  • We deduct 0 per cent (the care percentage) which gives a child support percentage of 80 per cent for Shona

Jacki has an income percentage of 20 per cent:

  • We deduct 0 per cent (the care percentage) which gives a child support percentage of 20 per cent for Tom
  • We deduct 0 per cent (the care percentage) which gives a child support percentage of 20 per cent for Shona

Note

Lisa does not have a child support percentage because, although she is bearing some of the costs of the children, she has no legal obligation to financially support them. Therefore, her income is not used in the child support calculation.

We work out the costs of each child. Ben and Jacki’s combined child support income is $33,496 and, according to the relevant Costs of children table, this makes the total cost of the children $7,978. We divide this amount by two (the total number of children), giving a cost for each child of $3,989.

Ben has a child support percentage of 56 per cent for Tom, so he needs to transfer 56 per cent of Tom’s costs through child support. Tom’s cost is $3,989 and 56 per cent of this is $2,234. Ben needs to pay $2,234 in child support for Tom. Ben has a child support percentage of 80 per cent for Shona, so he needs to transfer 80 per cent of Shona’s costs through child support. Shona’s cost is $3,989 and 80 per cent of this is $3,191. Ben needs to pay $3,191 in child support for Shona.

Jacki has a child support percentage of 20 per cent for Tom, so needs to transfer 20 per cent of Tom’s costs through child support.

Tom’s cost is $3,989 and 20 per cent of this is $798. Jacki needs to pay $798 in child support for Tom.

Jacki has a child support percentage of 20 per cent for Shona, so needs to transfer 20 per of Shona’s costs through child support. Shona’s cost is $3,989 and 20 per cent of this is $798. Jacki needs to pay $798 in child support for Shona.

Because both Ben and Jacki’s child support percentages are positive, Lisa is entitled to receive the total of the child support from both parents.

  • Ben pays $2,234 for Tom and $3,191 for Shona—a total of $5,425—to Lisa.
  • Jacki pays $798 for Tom and $798 for Shona—a total of $1,596—to Lisa.

Notes

  • If one of the parents had a negative child support percentage (for example, because they had more care) and shared care, they would be entitled to receive some child support from the other parent. In this example, Lisa would receive less child support because one of the parents would be meeting more of the child’s cost directly.
  • Because Lisa is the only non–parent carer, she receives all of the child support: a total of $7,021. If there was more than one non–parent carer, the amount of child support would be divided between them according to their cost percentages.

* Figures, used in this example, such as the self-support amount, are indexed annually.

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