Child Support Agency (CSA) - The new Child Support Scheme and changes to Family Assistance: Introduction: Why is the Scheme changing?

Child Support Scheme changes by stages

The Child Support Scheme changes are being released in three main stages progressively over two years:

Introduced in July 2006:

Recognised the costs incurred by non-resident parents on income support who have contact with their children - these parents can receive "with child" rate of certain income support payments
Introduced clearer guidelines to assess parents' ability to earn money
Reduced payments for people with the highest child support rate to make sure payments better reflect the actual costs of children
Enabled non-resident parents to spend a greater percentage of their payments directly on their children (up to 30% of the Child Support assessment)
Increased minimum payment from $5 a week to approximately $6 a week to ensure child support payments keep pace with inflation, and
Increasing our capacity to make sure child support is paid in full and on time, and providing improved support and services for separating parents.

Introduced in January 2007:

Introduced independent review of Child Support Agency decisions by the Social Security Appeals Tribunal. Before this change, parents who were unhappy with CSA's decisions could only appeal to the courts, which could be expensive and time-consuming.
Simplified the relationship between the courts and the new Child Support Scheme by:
- making it possible for parents to take their own court action to recover any outstanding child support debts while CSA continues to collect ongoing payments
- increasing the power of courts determining child support matters
- increasing court's power to make temporary arrangements for child support matters, and
- generally limiting Change of Assessment decisions and departure orders made by a court to the previous 18 months.
Gave separating parents 13 weeks instead of 28 days to work out parenting arrangements for the family before their Family Tax Benefit Part A is affected
Improved and simplified the processes for parents who dispute a child's parentage.

Introduced in January 2008:

Recognition of relevant dependent children aged 18 and over

CSA customers will be able to apply to extend the time (until the end of the school year) a relevant dependent child is taken into account in their child support assessment, if the child will turn 18 during that year and is still in full-time secondary education.
A paying parent will be able to have their relevant dependent child taken into account in their child support assessment from the date the assessment started if they advise CSA within 28 days of the notice of assessment being issued to them; and notice is issued after 4 December 2007.

Changes to income amount orders and estimates

The definition of an income amount order is changing to provide customers with an increased opportunity to lodge an estimate of income.
The estimate provisions are changing to allow customers to lodge an estimate for the remainder of the child support period, after an income amount order expires

Objections to CSA decisions

Parents will be able to apply for an extension of time to submit an objection over the phone as well as in writing.
Paying parents will be able to object to the acceptance of their application for a child support assessment.
CSA will not be required to provide a copy of the objection and accompanying documents on the other parent where the objection is to the making of, or refusal to make, a departure determination (under Part 6A) if CSA is satisfied the rights of the other parent will not be affected by any decision made by the CSA

Other changes

Garnishee (72A) notices (notices requiring employers to deduct child support) will be able to be issued for less than the total amount of outstanding child support.
Assessment notices will be amended to include only age ranges of relevant dependent children and liable children from other cases.
The range of debts collectable via tax refund intercepts will be extended.
The rental property definition will be updated.

Start on 1 July 2008, and include:

A new and more balanced way of working out child support amounts based on recent Australian research on the costs of caring for children, and taking account of both parents' incomes after self support amounts are deducted
More flexible arrangements, with better protection for parents who want to make agreements between themselves about the payment of child support and the treatment of lump sum payments
More equal treatment of children from first and second families
Where a payer has a minimum assessment and more than one case, the payment will be made for each case, not divided between them, and
Changes to the treatment of overtime and second jobs where needed for re-establishment costs