Child Support . . .

• When parents no longer live together in a relationship and one of them (or another person) is caring for their children, the parent not having the children in their care can be assessed to pay financial assistance to help provide for the children’s needs.

• The Child Support Act 1991 (the Act) was enacted to ensure a child’s right to be supported by their parents and affirm the parent’s obligations to support their children.

• A person caring for the child is defined as a receiving carer and the parent paying support as the liable parent. A receiving carer can be a parent or a non-parent carer.

How Child Support works . . .

• In New Zealand the assessment and collection of child support is regulated by the Child Support Act 1991, this Act is administered by the Department of Inland Revenue (IRD).

• The Child Support (Reciprocal Agreement with Australia) Orders 2000 allows New Zealand and Australia child support authorities to assist each other with the collection of child support.

• If a paying parent with a New Zealand assessment lives in Australia, initially they deal with IRD. However, if payments get behind, collection can be referred to the Australian Child Support Agency (CSA) which is part of the Department of Human Services.

Different ways to pay child support . . .

• Direct between parents or carers by private arrangement. From I July 2023 This option is available to receiving carers.

• Or through IRD by either formula assessment or voluntary agreement, where IRD will administer the collection of child support.

• Formula assessment: A formula assessment is where a receiving carer lodges a child support application with IRD, who calculate the level of payment to be made by the paying parent, collect the payment and pay it out to the receiving parent.

• Voluntary agreement: A Voluntary agreement can be put in place where the parents/carer agree on the amount to be paid towards providing for the children’s needs and want IRD to collect and pay out the amount.

Collection of Child Support . . .

• Child support for each month an assessment is in place is required to be paid to IRD by the 20th of the following month, what has been collected is paid out to the receiving parent shortly after the 20th of each month.
• Example: Child support for May is due to be paid to IRD by the 20th of June, the amount will be paid to the receiving carer on around 23 June.

How do I apply for child support? . . .

• You should complete an IR101 Application to assess child support if you are a parent of the children.

• If you are a non-parent carer you complete an IR954 Application to assess child support by a non-parent carer.

• Parents agreeing the amount child support to be paid would, if criteria are met, complete an IR102 Registration of Voluntary Agreement for child support and attach their written agreement if they want IRD to collect child support.

• Completed forms are sent to IRD and will be accepted from the day the form is received, provided all information required is supplied as requested.

Receiving child support while on a benefit . . .

• The Child Support Act has been amended and from 1 July 2023 no receiving carer is required to apply for child support through IRD. This means that any receiving carer already in receipt of a sole parent benefit can now cancel an IRD assessment if they choose to.

• Prior to 1 July 2023 a receiving carer getting a benefit would have any child support collected used to offset the monthly benefit already received by the receiving carer.
NOTE: Any arrears owing for periods prior to 1 July 2023 will be retained in consolidated revenue as relevant child support was prior to 1 July 2023.

• After 1 July 2023 any child support collected by IRD will paid out to the receiving carer and this amount will be considered income for benefit purposes.

IRD will advise Winz of child support payments received and Winz will calculate any reduction in benefit over the following 4-5 weeks. Arrears payments received by IRD for periods after 1 July 2023 will be advised to Winz as they're received.

How are child support payments calculated?. . .

• For a formula assessment Inland Revenue uses a standard calculation to work out which parent pays child support (liable parent) and which carer receives it (receiving carer), and to decide how much child support needs to be paid.

IRD has a calculator for you to use if you have all information required.

Living allowance. . .

• This is an amount deducted from a parent’s gross (before tax) income figure prior to the calculation of child support to be paid. It’s not meant to be an amount the parent is expected to live on, it is a figure set annually by the government which is not included in the calculation of child support.

• Living allowances vary depending on the type of income being received.

• For example: If a parent has a living allowance of $ 19,359.00, gross income of $372 a week is not counted when assessing your child support payments.

Recognised care. . .

• Where a parent has more than 28% of care, that can be taken into account when the formula assessment is calculated.

• The care percentage increases with the amount of care provided

Penalties. . .

• Penalties are charged on child support not received by IRD by the due date. Penalties are not paid to the carer.

Deductions of Child Support. . .

• For existing liabilities payments can be voluntarily made from a liable parent’s income while child support is being paid by the due date.

• Liable parents in receipt of a benefit will have their child support payments deducted from their benefits.

• If a liable parent fall into arrears they lose the ability to choose if deductions are made from their wages, and IRD can instruct an employer to make deductions or recover payments from other sources. New liabilities starting after 1 November 2021 will have employer deductions started immediately.

Exemptions. . .

• May be put in place where a liable parent is in prison, a hospital inmate or under 16 years of age provided certain criteria are met.

• A receiving carer can request a review of a liable parent’s exemption.