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Child support agreement

IMPORTANT: If the Payee is entitled to receive more than the minimum rate of Family Tax Benefit (FTB), you must ensure:
1. You have a child support assessment; and
2. Your Agreement is at least equal in value to your child support assessment.

Yes    Please carefully read and complete this section.

Are you claiming, or entitled to claim, more than the minimum rate of FTB?
No     Yes     Unsure

Do you want CSA to collect the child support payments for you?
No     Please go to question 6.
Yes    Please complete the bank details below. You must nominate a bank account that is in your name.

Declaration: I declare that the information I have provided in this section is true and correct.

There are penalties for deliberately giving false or misleading information

The child support Agreement is made between:

The Agreement was made on (dd/mm/yyyy)

The terms of the Agreement are:
Attached to this form. You can now send this form to CSA if you have decided to write and sign your Agreement on separate paper and you have completed the form up to this point.
To end the existing Agreement between the Payer and Payee named on this form.
Set out in this form, under:

b. Do you want these payments adjusted with an inflation rate, to keep pace with the cost of living?

No     go to e
Yes   CSA will use the Consumer Price Index (CPI), unless you nominate another inflation rate below.

c. Do you want CSA to use:

weighted national average CPI ; or
capital city CPI    (specify which capital city)

d. When do you want the payments adjusted?

on 1 July each year
every 15 months from the day the Agreement started
other    (please specify)

e. Do you want the agreed periodic payments varied if the Payer is unemployed during the term of this Agreement? (See Agreement Notes, Note One)

No    Please go to question 8.
Yes   When?

f. What should the child support be reduced to? (For example: the child support minimum annual rate, which is increased with inflation each year to keep pace with the cost of living.)

per

Total value

I understand that this Agreement is a binding contract. I agree to the terms set out in this Agreement. (Both parties must sign here.)

How do Agreements work?

A Child Support Agreement is an agreement between two parents, about how much child support should be paid. It can include regular payments of a set amount, paid to the Payee (periodic payments); and/or non-periodic payments, such as school fees paid to a school; and/or a modified child support assessment. Each of these three options is explained in detail in the Part A, Part B, and Part C notes below.

An Agreement is a binding contract between two parents. If you are considering signing an Agreement, it is important that you understand it. If you are unsure about anything, you should seek further information or legal advice. You can learn more about Agreements on our website (www.csa.gov.au), or ask for more information when you phone us on 131 272.

Who is eligible to apply?

Either party to an Agreement can apply for CSA to accept the Agreement. To ensure you are eligible to apply, check the following eligibility rules:

• The children's parents must have separated on or after 1 October 1989, or one of the children (from the same relationship) must have been born on or after 1 October 1989.
• The person who will receive the child support payments (the Payee) must have at least 'substantial' care of the children. This means they must care for the children for at least 110 nights over the first 12 months of a child support period. The 'child support period' is shown at the top of your assessment letters.
• The person paying the child support (the Payer) must be living in Australia (or a country with reciprocating jurisdiction) on the day the Agreement is made. Please contact CSA for a list of reciprocating countries.
• The children must be under 18, unmarried, and not living in a de facto relationship.
• The children must be Australian citizens or currently or usually living in Australia (or a country with reciprocating jurisdiction).
• The Payee and the Payer must not be living together in a domestic relationship.

What if the Payee receives Family Tax Benefit (FTB)?

If the Payee receives, or is entitled to receive, more than the minimum rate of FTB:

• The parties must have a child support assessment prior to the Agreement. To apply for an assessment, please phone 131 272.
• Centrelink must approve the Agreement. Centrelink will not approve an Agreement that is not at least the same value as your child support assessment.

If your Agreement includes payments other than periodic payments (Part A), the Payee can ask CSA not to reduce the child support assessment by more than 25%. This applies at all times when the Payee receives more than the minimum FTB.

How do I apply to have an Agreement accepted?

An Agreement must be in writing and signed by both parents. You can write your Agreement on the Child Support Agreement form, or on separate paper. If you make any changes to the wording of your Agreement, each parent must initial each change. To have your Agreement accepted and registered, you can apply either verbally, or in writing (on this form, or on separate paper). Please phone 131 272 for more information.

Part A

You can complete Part A if you and the other parent have agreed on set, periodic payments that will be paid to the Payee, either directly or through CSA. Parents do not have to complete Part A if they have agreed that child support should be paid in a different form (see Part B and Part C). Parents can also choose to combine Part A and Part B.

Example: Emily and Lewis sign a Part A Agreement that Emily will pay $90 per week for Sean and $90 per week for David.

CSA suggests you write an amount for each child. This allows for flexibility if circumstances change. Consider the below example.

Example: Emily and Lewis sign a Part A Agreement that Emily will pay a total of $180 per week. Sean and David are included in the Agreement. David turns 18 and the Agreement is still active. Emily must continue to pay $180 per week for Sean alone, because the Agreement did not include specified amounts for each child.

Part B

Part B includes payments in a form other than periodic payments. It can include lump sum payments, or payments to a third-party. It also allows parents to have a formula assessment that includes some non-periodic payments.

Example: Leah and Matthew have an existing child support assessment of $4000/annum. They sign a Part B Agreement that Matthew will pay $2000/annum for their daughter's school fees. These payments are to represent half the assessed child support payments for the period of the Agreement.

If parents want to credit Part B payments against their child support assessment, they must state the annual value that is to be credited ($2000 in the example above), or the percentage of the annual rate that is to be credited (50% in the example above). If one of these options is not specified in the Agreement, the Payer will be required to pay Part B payments in addition to the child support assessment.

IMPORTANT:
(1) CSA cannot enforce payments that are to be paid to a third party.
(2) If a Payee receives more than minimum FTB, the payee can ask CSA not to reduce the child support assessment by more than 25% for Part B payments. This means that even if you originally wrote an Agreement to reduce your assessment by 50% for Part B payments, the Payee can ask CSA not to reduce the assessment by more than 25%.

Part C

If you already have a child support assessment, you can agree to modify the assessment using Part C. If you want to modify the assessment by simply agreeing to a set amount each period, you should complete Part A instead.

These are the ways you can modify the assessment:

• agree to change the child support percentage
• agree to change the total annual rate
• agree to change the payer's income used in the assessment
• agree to change the payee's income used in the assessment
• agree to change any of the amounts above at regular intervals by a specified inflation factor
• agree that the payer's income, applied in the assessment, is not to be limited to the child support income cap.
• agree that the combined annual rate of two parents paying child support to another person is not to be limited to 1.5 times the maximum child support liability of one parent.

Note One: Unemployment clauses

Income tested pensions and benefits include Veteran affairs pension, ABSTUDY, Newstart Allowance, Disability Support Pension, Parenting Payment, Austudy Payment, Sickness Allowance and Youth Allowance. CSA will need to be able to confirm that you are receiving a pension or benefit before reducing the periodic liability.

Please note that if the payee receives more than the minimum rate of Family Tax Benefit, your Agreement must be approved by Centrelink. Centrelink will not approve your Agreement if it includes an unemployment clause to reduce payments below the minimum child support assessment. The minimum assessment amount of $333 per year (from 1 January 2007) will be inflated each year with the Consumer Price Index. This will ensure these payments keep pace with inflation.

Please also note that you will need to notify CSA if the Payer becomes unemployed. CSA will not necessarily know to activate your unemployment clause, unless you notify us.

Note Two: Deciding on the length of your Agreement

A child support Agreement is a binding contract. It cannot be varied unless the parents agree to vary it, or either parent successfully obtains a court order. For this reason, CSA suggests that when deciding on the length of your Agreement, you should consider how your needs could change in the future.

If your child turns 18 and is still attending secondary school, you can apply for an extension of your child support Agreement until the last day of the school year. If you want to apply for an Agreement to be extended you need to:

• Apply before the child turns 18; and
• Apply in writing; and
• Agree with the other parent to extend the Agreement.

Note Three: Ending an existing assessment

If you had a child support assessment immediately prior to your Agreement, another assessment will be mailed to you when your Agreement ends. If you did not have a pre-existing assessment, you can phone CSA to apply for one. To end a child support assessment, the Payee will need to contact CSA and request that it be terminated.

Note Four: Recording your Agreement

After you apply to have your Agreement registered with CSA, we will contact you to confirm whether it has been accepted. After an Agreement is accepted, CSA will send each of the parties a summary of the Agreement. If the Payee has elected for CSA to collect periodic payments, CSA will also send information regarding the collection details.

The Payee can, at any time, ask CSA to collect periodic payments. If the Agreement includes payments that are not periodic payments, the Payee can approach a court to have these payments enforced. CSA cannot collect payments unless they are Part A, periodic payments.

Additional information

Where do I send this form?

Please send this form to the address shown on your CSA letters, or to your nearest CSA office:

Where can I find more information?

If you need more information, or you would like help to complete this form, please phone us on 131 272*. You can also read more about CSA and your options in our fact sheets available on the CSA website at www.csa.gov.au

What about customer privacy?

The information requested is required by law for child support purposes. We do not pass your personal information on to the other parent, except where this is required by law or necessary to make a decision that would affect the other parent. Some information may be passed to Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Office or to a law enforcement agency. CSA may provide your contact details to people contracted by us to deliver services to separated parents, or carry out research to help improve our services. You are not obliged to participate in any programs or research. Our guidelines on privacy are in accordance with the Information Privacy Principles of the Privacy Act 1988. For more information about the Privacy Act and privacy generally, see the Privacy Commissioner's website at www.privacy.gov.au. For more information about our collection, use and disclosure of information, see The Guide in the legal section of CSA's website.

What if I have a complaint?

Step One: Contact CSA and speak to your Customer Service Officer who will try to solve the problem.

Step Two: If you are not satisfied with the outcome, ask to speak to their manager.

Step Three: If you are still not satisfied, call CSA's Complaints Service on 132 919 and speak to a complaints officer.

The Australian Government Services Fraud tip-off line
How can I report suspected fraud?

If you have information about someone who is misusing government services, please phone the Australian Government Services Tip-off Line on 131 524*. The tip-off line allows you to confidentially report fraud against Centrelink, Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, or Child Support Agency.

*Call charges apply.

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