Dealing with the Child Support Agency Australia (CSA) would have to be one of the most arduous tasks that separated parents have to tackle. I personally have struggled with the child support system and what, appears at time, the slow process in recovering money for the children. The many issues with CSA that I’ve faced have included no communication of what is occurring, long times in them being able to track down an income source for my ex, my ex telling them he isn’t working, him lying about income to reduce his liability to name but a few.
I have found when dealing with CSA it is best to
- Be polite – I believe most CSA officers genuinely want to get money for you but are often limited by the legislation the government has written. Remember they are following this legislation, they are not out to make this hard for you.
- Keep a diary – log every call you make, what information you gave them, and what occurred during this call.
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- Get receipt numbers – whenever you contact CSA to make an enquiry a receipt number is generated. Keep this receipt number.
- Have a list of questions ready to ask and paper to write down the response.
- Call CSA with any little bit of information you may have that could be relevant to your case.
- Be patient – it can take a long time for them to get a result. They are hampered by limited legislation that really doesn’t make it easy for them to actually get the money. I believe there needs to be penalties for non-payers but until the government sees fit to look at the legislation the children have to wait.
My biggest piece of advice
This took me a long time to accept but now that I’ve accepted it I feel a lot more comfortable in my situation.
- Don’t rely on getting child support. It is not guaranteed.
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- Learn to budget without child support. Yes it’s tough but it can be done. Remember if you go through an entire financial year without the correct amount of child support that Centrelink will do a reconciliation of your Family Tax Benefit and you will be paid arrears if you’ve been underpaid due to not getting child support. This lump sum can then be put away to budget for the following year.
Even though I’ve been separated for eight years it’s only the last four years that have been difficult with CSA. The reason – the ex got a new girlfriend who taught him all the tricks to avoid paying child support. Everytime he made an adjustment on his record e.g. lowering his income substantially I would be forced to lodge an appeal. I won every appeal I have lodged. This means that CSA backed me with every appeal and it proved that he’s been doing the wrong thing. I have cried many tears over the past four years, sporadic payments, fortnights where I get virtually no Family Tax Benefit because CSA have told Centrelink I should be getting X amount. Centrelink then reduce my payments because of this “expected” amount. It’s tough but I’m doing it. I also hold onto the fact that I will get arrears payments of FTB at the end of the financial year which I can use to support the children for the following year.
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CSA say be patient because one day he will slip up and decide he doesn’t need to be careful. They said they regularly get non-payers who think they’ve got away with it and now can do ten years worth of tax and get all their refunds at once as their child has turned 18. CSA said many have been caught out by doing this as the debt doesn’t go away. It remains forever and will come out of an estate when the person dies. It will come. CSA may ask you to waive that debt when your kids are 18, but don’t. You have worked hard to provide your kids without this money, you are entitled to it. You just have to be patient. It’s taken me a long time to get to a point of acceptance that I’m no longer getting child support. CSA are still trying but he is making it incredibly difficult. They have him in the intensive collection team but I’m no longer holding my breath waiting for the children’s money. I have now learned to budget without factoring in child support so if it comes it will be a nice little surprise to put away for something special for the kids.