The new Child Support Scheme and changes to Family Assistance
A new way of working out child support
The new Child Support Scheme seeks to ensure both parents effectively share the costs and responsibilities of raising their children.
The Child Support Agency (CSA) will use a new formula to calculate a parent's child support contributions. Of course, every parent's situation is different so we also have variations on the formula to take this into account.
The current formula uses fixed percentages of income to work out child support assessments. It doesn't take into account the different costs of raising children of different ages, or care arrangements for paying parents with care of the children two to three nights per fortnight, or the effect of income tax.
The new formula is quite different to the current one. It ensures a more balanced and flexible way of working out child support payments.
The key components of the new formula are:
- The costs of raising children, based on independent, Australian research, will now be the basis of the formula
- Both parents' incomes will now be taken into account and considered equally
- The same self-support amount will now be deducted from each parent's income before child support is worked out
- Shared care of the children will be better acknowledged
- Children from first and subsequent families will be treated in a similar way.
If you or the other parent lives overseas, there are other changes to child support that affect you. For more information go to the International parents section of the CSA website.