The Child Support Agency has warned separated parents they could create problems for themselves if they fail to lodge their tax returns on time.
National Enforcement Services Manager at the Agency, Bill Volkers said as child support assessments were based on both parents’ incomes, it was important for separated parents who earned over $18,808 during 2008-09 to lodge their tax returns soon after receiving their payment summaries.

Mr Volkers said if tax returns were not lodged on time, parents could pay the wrong amount of child support.

Parents warned on playing with tax

Welfare groups are concerned the number of parents paying the minimum payment of $12 a fortnight will increase as unemployment rises.

“The human tragedy is that two families could be placed under extra financial stress – not just the family that they are living with, but the family they are assisting through their child support payments,” the president of the National Welfare Rights Network, Kate Beaumont, said.

The loss of a job could mean the parent receiving child support gets only $6 a child per week instead of the average of $77 a week. Some of the difference could be made up through increased family tax payments.

Increasing unemployment is likely to make it harder for the Federal Government to ensure parents are receiving adequate money to raise their families.

It is already grappling with a debt in unpaid child support that grew by about 5 per cent to $1 billion last financial year.

This was despite increasingly tough measures used by the Government to recover the money, such as hiring private detectives to spy on people suspected of under-reporting their income and automatically deducting payments from welfare benefits.

The Minister for Human Services, Joe Ludwig, said the Child Support Agency was paying close attention to the effect of rising unemployment on child support payments.

“Many Australians, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, had their hours cut back or had their pay reduced as a direct result of the global recession. This can make it especially hard for separated parents to pay child support for the benefit of their children,” Senator Ludwig said.

The agency was granted an extra $223 million in last week’s budget to offer financial counselling to separated parents whose payments have been affected by changing work circumstances.

Source…child support payments slashed

CSA South Australian manager Jim McMahon said the CSA recognised the current economic climate could put some pressure on parents.

“The CSA wants to work hard to support parents and ensure that assessments are accurate for the benefit of the children and the parents involved,” Mr McMahon said.

“It’s important that parents let the CSA know about a change in their circumstances as soon as possible, as changes to child support payments may not be able to be backdated and this can put both parents in financial distress.”

Parents can call 131 272 to speak to a customer service officer, or visit the CSA office at 5 Percy Street, Mount Gambier.

Source:Support for separated parents

Mr Miller said a new booklet, Family Separation – a guide for teens, offered advice for teenagers on how to cope with parental separation.

“The guide helps teenagers to identify their rights and it contains a list of contacts that teens can approach for help,” he said.
“We encourage those who feel they need support to ask for it and for them to reach out to friends and professionals if they need to.”

Mr Miller said while more parents were working together for the benefit of their children, the initiative would encourage parents and children to seek help if they needed it
“Independent research conducted by the Open Mind Research Group in August 2008 showed that only 17 per cent of receiving parents and 14 per cent of paying parents surveyed said they were extremely unlikely to be able to liaise with their ex-partner in a businesslike way,” he said.

“This is significantly fewer compared to the previous wave of research conducted in early 2008 (37 per cent receiving parents and 31 per cent paying parents).”
General Manager of Kids Helpline, Wendy Protheroe, said the most common reason children called the Helpline was to discuss family relationships, conflict and separation.

“Last year we undertook almost 9,000 counselling sessions about family relationships and almost three-quarters of those related to frequent or major family conflict and family breakdown, separation or divorce,” Ms Protheroe said.

“Many parents don’t realise that even minor conflict can be harmful for their children, so it’s important for families to be aware of the range of support services available.”
Mr Miller said parents needed to put the wellbeing of the children first, and encouraged them to make use of available resources.

“When parents separate, young people often say they feel isolated so it’s important that they know they’re not alone, and that there are people they can talk to,” he said.
Mr Miller said the CSA was in the process of developing products specifically for children under 12 who were experiencing family separation

He said the teen booklet was available from www.youth.csa.gov.au

Source: PS News Page 11 – Child Agency dials up Helpline deal

FUNNY man Eddie Murphy has lost a court battle with his ex wife Melanie Brown – and will have to pay $51,000 a month – and a total of $10 million – in child support.

After putting on a court-dodging act fit for a Beverly Hills Cop script, Murphy was ordered to pay up after the 15-month court battle came to an end.

Murphy denied being the father to little Angel Iris and demanded a DNA test.

Test results determined that he was in fact the baby daddy and Mel B scored big.

In the child support agreement, Murphy has agreed to a support package totaling more than $10 million dollars.

Source:Eddie Murphy ordered to $51,000 in child support | The Daily Telegraph

Unlike in New Zealand, surrogacy is illegal in Queensland and many parts of Australia.

Australian funding agencies Centrelink and the Child Support Agency confirmed they were likely to seek maintenance payments from a birth mother in New Zealand if the Australian birth father claimed benefits as a sole parent caring for their baby.

Family law expert Professor Mark Henaghan, dean of law at Otago University, said surrogates could be forced to pay child support on either side of the Tasman if their babies were not adopted and the intended parents claimed benefits. Gay male couples were unable to adopt in New Zealand and in most of Australia, which meant the surrogate mother’s name remained on birth certificates and prevented her signing away legal rights to the child, he said. Guardianship was insufficient to remove the birth mother’s legal duties.

“You can’t contract out of child support,” Professor Henaghan said.

“It’s a blanket rule. The circumstances are irrelevant. If you are a parent, unless someone adopts a child, you are the legal parent.”

Surrogates told to pay support – National – smh.com.au

But when asked if they would ever go back to fight the amount they pay, what one non-custodial parent had to say made a lot of sense. “If I was still able to live with my kids, I’d spend this money. I’d be buying food for their stomachs and putting clothes on their backs. They’re my kids, and this is my job.

Do I like handing the money over to the b-tch I was married to? I don’t think of it that way. I think of it as being their Dad.”

Read the full story…

Should Out-of-Work Parents Get Off Child Support Hook? | Strollerderby | Babble Australia

Danny Platt confessed, told police where to find the child’s body and will be booked on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Ja’ Shawn Powell, Riley said at a news conference.

“He had said he would kill either his wife or his child before he paid child support,” which he recently had been ordered to do, Riley said.

Riley said he did not know the amount of child support and would not describe how the boy was killed, saying the coroner would do that after the autopsy was complete. The coroner’s spokesman did not immediately return a call.

“The mother is in a safe place,” Riley said.

Read the full story…

US dad kills son over child support – Breaking News – World – Breaking News

ALMOST 900 parents, mostly fathers, who refused to pay child support have complied in the past 18 months after being threatened with litigation or taken to court by the federal Government.

More than $20 million in outstanding payments has been collected in 880 cases through the legal system since mid-2007, as the federal Government steps up moves to take deadbeat dads to court to force them to pay child support.

Litigation by the Child Support Agency has led to $5million in overdue payments for children this financial year alone.

Since July 1 last year, the CSA has targeted 249 cases, resulting in the collection of millions of dollars in outstanding child support.

This amount was in addition to the $15.3 million collected from 631 litigation matters in 2007-08.

This is a large increase on 2006-07, when $12.8 million in outstanding payments was collected from 479 cases.

Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig described the payments as an excellent result for children.

“While most parents do the right thing, the CSA will take Australia’s worst child support evaders to court and make sure they take responsibility for the support of their children,” hesaid.

Despite the Government action, child support debt has continued to grow.

It has increased by $50 million in each of the past two years — an average annual rate of 5.6 per cent.

Total child support debt has just reached $1 billion and about one-fifth, $231 million, relates to overseas debt.

Senator Ludwig said the Rudd Government was taking a tough stand on parents who did the wrong thing by their children.

“I encourage all separated parents who have fallen behind on their child support payments to contact the CSA and negotiate an appropriate payment arrangement,” he said.

Senator Ludwig said litigation was a valuable means of ensuring that people with a child support debt did not escape their obligations.

“It’s certainly a tough approach, but in some cases this is the only way to get the paying parent to face up to their responsibilities,” he said.

Senator Ludwig said that most cases did not reach court, as most parents paid their outstanding child support before facing the Federal Magistrates Court or Family Court.

The CSA and the Australian Government Solicitor work together to identify cases where parents will reach a pre-court settlement, so the debt is paid and legal costs are avoided.

About 40 per cent of separated fathers pay just $5 a week in child support.

And about 105,000 are suspected of using self-employment and cash transactions to understate their real incomes, so as to avoid paying the appropriate amount of child support.

The Howard government, with the support of Labor, changed the child support system to allow divorced fathers who see their children only on a weekly basis to have their support payments cut.

Litigation nets $5m in unpaid support from deadbeat dads | The Australian

More than 14,000 separated parents are dodging $97 million in child maintenance by living overseas.

The majority – nearly 8000 of them – live in New Zealand, Child Support Agency figures reveal.

Another 3300 have fled to the UK, and 2280 to the US.

The international absconders have average debts of $6400 each, while their children miss out back home.

But the 20 worst child-support dodgers owe $4 million to their former partners in Australia.

Jo – not her real name – said her former partner was working in the Middle East as a financial adviser and claimed he earned just $25,000 a year.

She said she only got $20 a week from him for their 12-year-old daughter.

“He writes to my daughter about his marble staircases and his car and driver,” she said.

“He’s got a senior-management-level position, but he maintains he’s on a McDonald’s-level wage.”

The Child Support Agency’s manager for international operations, David Mole, said overseas maintenance debt was a big problem.

“Where the paying parent is outside Australia, the CSA has limited control over the collection process,” he said.

“Enforcement systems in some overseas countries are not always as timely or effective as those in Australia.

“As a result, there is often a considerable delay before regular child support payments are received, if at all.”

New data-matching between the agency and immigration authorities is being used to stop parents with a child-support debt from leaving the country.

Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig warned separated parents thinking of travelling overseas to pay their maintenance debts first.

Runaway fathers leave trail of debt | Herald Sun