If you are the primary carer of the child or children, then you may be able to claim for child support from the other parent to cover the cost of day-to-day care of your child. Even if the other parent lives outside of Australia, the Department of Human Service (the authority responsible for administering child support payment) can arrange for parents who live overseas to pay child support. If the other parent refuses to pay child support, the child support payment can be taken out of the payer parent’s salary and tax returns.
Child support is payable with respect to all children until they reach 18 years of age. However, it is also possible for the payee parent or the child to apply to the Court for adult child maintenance for adult children over the age of 18 years if the child is completing their secondary or tertiary education or has a mental or physical disability.
Child support amount is determined through Child support formula which takes into account many factors such as taxable income of each parents’, cost of care of the children, the adjusted income of both parties and the level of care provided by the parents. There are various kinds of child support payments such as periodic payments, lump sum payment, direct payment, indirect payment, regular ongoing payment and the like. If you do not agree with the child support assessment made by Department of Human Services, it may be possible for you to request them to review it or you could oppose it. The time limit to do so is 28 days if you live in Australia and 90 days if you live in overseas.
As Child support is a very technical area of family law, if you are considering your options to claim child support payment it is highly recommended that you get appropriate legal advice.
If you need professional assistance in relation to your family law matter, you could contact us on (02) 8379 1811 or email: info@kgrouplegal.com.au