Child Support Debt is Financial Abuse

Child Support Debt = Financial Abuse

 

Debt as at August 2014:

  • $977 million of the total debt is associated with domestic cases;
  • $388.6 million is associated with international cases;
  • $178.1 million of customer debt is less than 1 year old;
  • $608.9 million is 1 year and 5 years old;
  • $375.2 million is between 5 years and 10 years old; and
  • $203.3 million is older than 10 years.

#fact1: most debt is domestic

#fact 2: $1B plus is less than 10 years old which harms today`s child

#fact 3: 271,775 or 37% transferred was between 0 to $500 per annum (2014)

#fact4: Tax evasion is ignored with 435,425 customers having outstanding tax returns (2014)

#fact5: The debt is airbrushed as it does not include Private Collect which is more than 50% of all child support customers.

#fact6: Child support debt is used to control and or to inflict financial abuse

#fact7: Child support debt overwhelmingly harms women heading up a sole family

#fact8: Child support debt robs children of opportunities

 

It`s enough

We invite families who are entitled to child support and have a debt, to share their debt.  It can be a screenshot of your debt and or a comment.

111 thoughts on “Child Support Debt is Financial Abuse

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  1. For the past 2yrs I have been calling Child Support about him/his employer not paying the correct monthly payments, as outlined by Child Support. This has caused them to impose a debt which goes every month. I have also contacted my ex and told him I am unable to sort the issue because it is on his part of the assessment, and due to private and confidentiality laws they can not discuss his part with me. He has not done a tax return since 2015 so his payments are based on provisional income tax, plus he would know all this due to receiving monthly statements from Child Support outlining everything.

    Yesterday I spoke to Child Support again and I asked why they haven’t contacted his employer for his group certificates, as his employer pays the money directly to Child Support before he is paid each fortnight. I was told they are not allowed to that it’s my ex’s responsibility to contact them in regards to his payments, debt and taxable income. I was then told it would be easier if I contacted him and asked him to contact Child Support, as it’s not their responsibility to chase him. (This statement shocked me)

    I have explained to them a number of times that my ex becomes aggressive when I have asked him to do that in the past, claiming that it’s BS and I’m lying if they wanted to speak to him they would contact him. Child Support was suppose to make the collection of money easier and less stressful for me, unfortunately they have made the matter worse and myself and son are the ones who are missing out.

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  2. $23000 owed and the debt is growing at $1000 a month.
    My children are missing out.
    And child support say there is nothing they can do but wait until he gets a ” legal ” job.

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  3. I have been trying to get CS for 15 years, have had dribs and drabs over the years but each time CS has caught up with him to garnish wages he has quit his job. He now has a trust set up that the company he works for pays and he then pays himself. A loophole that CS apparently can’t touch.
    The debt now sits at $45,192.45 and our children are missing out.
    I have come to the point where I have taken him to civil court to try to get something to happen as I think he should have to contribute towards the children’s upbringing.
    It is incredibly unfair that these people can dodge again and again any responsibility and get away with it whilst the parent who is actually there for the children ( generally the mother) has to jump through hoops to get any help and struggle to keep their head above water. Then we have a government who continually punish and make things ridiculously hard for the ones that are trying to do the right thing by their children. It really does a lot of the time feel like a completely hopeless situation.

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  4. Just over 18 months into dealing with CSA… they apparently “lost” my first application. Even a print out of my receipt wasn’t enough evidence for them. I had to start from scratch… there’s the max. 28 day back pay… it was finally accepted August 2017… nothing received until Oct 17, $5.. (he owed over 300). Then he did a tax return, based on a PAYG job he had for 2 months, during which time he earnt $27k… (a business owner/truck driver – was in partnership, but he took it all, and money and ran)… so the 2 months pay was his ‘annual’ pay according to ATO. Did special circumstances, worked out he actually earnt over $90k…but that CS period ended last month… back to the minimum. September & December 2017 he received $180k in inheritance. CSA refused to include, as property settlement hadn’t been finalized, and according to them, I should receive something, then both our incomes reassessed…. But about March he declared he’d spent the entire heritance… I really don’t care about that part, but his real earnings needs to be found out… He commented recently that I will be getting more, because he earnt a hell of a lot more since the last assessment was done… but CS is still being based on 2017…

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  5. When he walked out on us for someone else, leaving me to raise a 6 mnth old alone, he was initially assessed to pay $300/month. I have always had 100% custody.
    Not long after he managed to get his payment down to $30/week.
    Last financial year he claimed he earned $5000. The previous year he bought a house so had a $300 000 mortgage, last year bought a new $30-40 000 car.
    Currently paying $25/week ($100/month).
    How on earth is it legal or even possible to hide income this way just becasuse you are self employed?
    When is the government going to crack down on this kind of evasion and send offenders to jail or issue heavy fines?
    How is it they are not even investigated or held accountable even in family court? Enough is enough.

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  6. I know my ex partner has traveled in the last 18 months to Kazakhstan, Paris, Spain, Italy, Bali, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He gives me 35 bucks a month for our two daughters and recently appealed against child support raising more. I had rung csa six months ago to ask them to stop the payments… its insulting and I dont want his token amount… but they said if I refused it would affect other government payments…The injustice of it!

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    1. My ex husband walked out on us 3 years ago! We had a business together as well. He quit his full time job beginning of this year to work for the business and stopped paying any child support! I have 3 kids 6 and under. He doesn’t contribute at all financially even when requested to purchase his sons winter school uniform. Has literally just wiped his hands of it all.
      I’ve spoke to child support so many times and the response is basically we can tell him how much he needs to pay but it’s virtually impossible to make him. But hey the debt will just keep accumulating and it never goes away.
      I can’t get additional assistance from Centrelink and I can’t get him to contribute. Meanwhile he is living his best life and I’ve had to cut back on everything to make ends meet. This system is beyond a joke and so unfair that these parents are able to do this!

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  7. My ex stopped paying child support (3 children 15,11 and 8) last May when he lost his job and moved interstate. In July CSA intercepted his tax refund which did not cover his arrears. Since July I have contacted CSA several times only to always be told that someone is assigned to him and they have no new information. I have not received any child support since the one off payment in July. His tax refund from last year was around $4000. His debt is currently sitting just under $6500 and CSA have told me that it is unlikely they will be able to collect anything for ‘a while’. He is working in between several jobs and they are unable to get a lock on him long enough to take enforcement action. He has told several people that ‘she will just have to wait until tax time’. I already know his refund, if he lodges, will not even come close to paying what he owes. He has no intention of paying to support his children.

    After 15 years of physical, verbal and emotional abuse towards myself and the children, I thought we were finally free of him but he is continuing to abuse us by withholding child support. The children are the ones who miss out and he is aware of that. He just doesn’t care. I have an AVO that protects us for 5 years but he does not tell people that. Instead he tells them that I am unfairly keeping him from seeing the children.

    If financial abuse is considered to be domestic violence, and I have an order that states he must not commit domestic violence or expose the children to DV, then why can I not apply to have the AVO breached?

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  8. I have 2 kids under 10 ( 5 & 7 ) , I had to leave my full time career – which I worked so hard to achieve . My ex owes me over $30k and earns over $150k per year & due to him having his own company he doesn’t pay a cent .
    We have been going through the courts for the last 3 years & he only has access for 6 hrs per fortnight .
    I have had to let my lawyers go while he still has his lawyers due to him financially crippling me .
    I have told CSA all his details , living arrangements with his new partner , his work & even down to his contracts & still nothing .
    He goes travelling every 3 months & can still leave the country …
    I just can’t wait for him to be caught out & then hopefully then he will realise – it’s money that is needed for the kids !!

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  9. My ex is self employed and has not paid child support for the kids whole lives, he doesnt speak to them and our assessments each year are an estimate cause he flies under the radar. My kids are owed approximately $20,000 at this point, their school fees dont get paid and their grandmother generally picks up the tab for them in emergencies. Im sick of my kids missing out, he left me with all the bills and debts so while i get nothing, ive been made to pay off 40,000 in a debt agreement, by myself on a single parent pension, cause he refuses to pay. My oldest daughter is 12 and about to go to high school, this has been going on since she was born. Im hurt, angry and gutted to know he can disregard his children. It has affected me greatly, im in a constant state of anxiety cause my children are not financially cared for like they should be. Its not there fault, ive tried the best I can to provide for my children, between working casually, getting the kids looked after constantly, and forever counting the cents i have to make it last. It is financial abuse, it affects me which affects the children and they miss out. We need an american system where they are gaoled. If i dont pay my electricity bill it goes to state debt and i have no power. If he doesnt pay child support, nothing hapoens to him. Its BS and it neds to stop.

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  10. Child support agency does nothing. It’s actually a money making profiting business That charges late fee fines. I asked the csa what they can do about the debt. They said all they can do is call up deadbeat and ask him ” so do you want to pay some money? And they said he said no and hung up. When deadbeats run a business ( at a loss I’m sure) they are due a refund. Mine was due $7000 tax refund and refused to do it for 3 years as he knew I would be getting it. So I called up ATO and tried to make him do it. So every week they sent him $550 late lodgement fines and he waited till no money was left then lodged. I got nothing. Then I asked them when can they take him to court to enforce it? They said only after $24 k debt then it’s now $40 k debt still nothing done. So I went to legal aid spoke to a child support lawyer and legal aid refused to help saying I could sell my home to pay private lawyer. Then luckily legal aid Cs lawyer said she could show me hiw to represent myself and how to lodge forms with fcc court,I lodge 2 weeks ago and court date is in March.
    Everyone with a debt should try and get debt enforced. You don’t pay any court fees. Also legal aid told me to ask court in order to comply with ” notice to produce financials documents” which is an entire page that they are forced to show me and court 9 years tax returns,bank statements ( theirs and shared accounts) super,businesses, assets, everything.
    I know he has lots of money in bank accounts as csa checked in recent change of assessment and wrote amount in response that I attached in my court affidavit too. And he is on Centrelink sickness payment and I found his business advertised with a pic of him and the date of newspaper which is same time as sickness certificate. He is going to s himself and I just have to serve the order on him and child support 2 weeks before court date do I won’t be giving him any extra time than that to be sneaky and come up with a plan.

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  11. I deal with two that evade tax. Both self employed…one raising a family of 5 on $6500 (Yes six thousand five hundred dollars) and the other works for cash, even after declaring bankruptcy is still operating a business. I walked away from both and took no financial settlement. I have been left to raise 4 kids on little income and one doesn’t lodge tax at all. No BAS either or quarterly profit and loss statements. COA year after year but no payments. The whole system is a complete joke and a waste of time.

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  12. After a $14,000 debit with private collect, finally being strong enough to claim CS to collect, due to an abusive relationship, 9 months is and now $3600 in CS debit!! Not supposed to happen, but it does. CS assure me that they will get the money from him, I know it won’t be in time to pay all the necessities for 3 kids in secondary school, one of them starting and needing new uniform and iPad. A man who has evaded all parental responsibilities. Have seen no money in 2 months. How is that fair???

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    1. My daughters father has refused to do his for approximately 3 years saying he doesn’t want me to get the money and has owed nearly $10,000. He has gone for 7mths each year paying nothing. Recently he declared his new income at a low amount $47k and is working for a friend but still hasn’t done tax returns. Previously he was earning around $80k. When access days increased from 47 to 68 csa said he didn’t have to pay anything at all and when I questioned it they said the law says he is providing enough support looking after her 1 night a fortnight and half school holidays! Not contributing to any childcare or school costs. I have drained all my savings, taken considerable time off work and have been under financial stress due to him not paying half her costs which is all I want. To be fair and equitable sharing the cost for our daughter.

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  13. I have 3 children and have then 12 days out of a fortnight. Father currently owes $20500. He hasn’t lodged tax returns, I have given them numerous leads in where he is working. then once they follow that up he then quits his job. the latest is his girlfriend has opened a business with her the company director and Secretary and they get paid through that. No word from Child Support if they have contacted her. I had to pay for the Asics business details to provide for them. each time I call i get advised to not count on the money. I dont understand why I have to keep chasing child support up and have to try find out myself where he works or who he banks with etc.

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  14. Csa have finally listened to me when i say my ex is hiding money, he was being paid under a false name, unfortunately he went overseas. I have no idea where, no contact what so ever to his 4 kids. Debt owing 190,000.
    They let him go o/s when he owed $20,000!
    The system is broken.

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  15. When I met my twin daughters’ father he worked several different cash in hand jobs, despite being qualified as a nurse (amongst other things). I never understood why until after I had my daughters and the CSA sent me a letter saying my daughters’ father was paying child support for 2 other children as well.
    For the entire 18 years that I received child support I received less than $15 a fortnight, for both children. I had 100% custody.

    I was also quite fearful when the laws were changed to reduce the amount of child support proportionate to the percentage of custody that this would mean my daughters’ father would come crawling out of the woodwork in order to minimise his financial contribution. Fortunately, he didn’t.
    While I rue the loss of potential relationship between my girls and their biological father, I cant imagine how a relationship with a person like that would have benefited either of them.

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  16. My eldest is 16 her father owes an estimated 34 thousand and thats not even an accurate amount because he does do his tax. Apparently hes meant to pay 38 dollars a month yet im getting nearly 1000. They need to do something.

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  17. It’s more than non lodgement and not paying. There are also cases where a parent is deliberately under employed and does some cash in hand work. They play the system to be assessed as zero.
    It’s uncool if you have a child with a disability and get no family tax benefit. For cases like mine I have over 80% care and 100% costs.
    Child support agency says try and negotiate some funds. It’s a joke my child’s parent won’t even pay for a haircut in his care.
    Going to court again just not worth the $$$ and financially inaccessible.

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  18. My ex partner was self employed last year and refused to cooperate with CSA. The debt reached $10,000 before he started working for a company close to my home and I reported the details as I saw his car at the work site when I was going to work. This took the debt down to $5,000, but was met with accusations made to my lawyer at DV court of me stalking him ( following him to work, sitting outside his home and work constantly. I will add I don’t drive, have no car, have 2 small children and was also working to support them, as if I even had the time or energy ). He then started working for his brothers company in February and of course he isn’t cooperating either. All evidence has been sent to CSA including videos uploaded to his brothers business page, of my ex in work uniform that has his brothers business name and details in very clear large writing. Still apparently 4 months later there’s nothing they can do and the debt is just under $7,000. He has not done tax for 4 years, this will be the 5th year. He had always told me that he will never pay a cent for a kid that doesn’t live with him and he will make me suffer until that happens. I left a domestic violence situation, to still be financially abused, and no one can help apparently.

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    1. I’ll also add that I’ve had to rely on food vouchers and hampers to help even feed our children, relied on families and friends to help with winter clothing, while he brags to our 5 yr old about his new car, new motorbikes for him and his son, and everything they get to do.

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  19. I have two autistic children who require medication and regular therapy. Their dad pays $16 a fortnight while self employed and also collecting Centrelink payments. CSA and Centrelink have done nothing despite me giving them all the information about the company he is sub-contracting for.

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  20. Background – My ex has children previous. My son is almost 10 years old. In that time Child support would appear in my account a few months at a time, then nothing for a year or more, and it would start up again… never very much. in that time, up to last month he only owed $1900 in child support. The ex had not done his tax in over 20 years. They obviously caught up to him, as I received the $1900 in varying amounts over 2 weeks last month. Centrelink immediately took $80 a fortnight. So even though it was an old debt, and I was owed that money, I still lost out. With the end of the tax year as well, Centrelink took another $200 a fortnight for 3 payments, claiming I had been overpaid family tax benefit. Having lost my job 3 months ago its been quite stressful. Meanwhile, my sons father gets away with it

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  21. My ex owns his own business, doesn’t pay tax throughout the year so when he does his tax return he gets a bill instead of a return. Owes me $10,000 in Child Support. Child Support Agency told me that child support is a nice to have, not an entitlement. 😡

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  22. Kicking myself and my 2 children out of the family home with nothing, quiting his job so he wont have to pay me any child support or anything really. All while travelling overseas, renting penthouse apartments, hotels, prostitutes, extravagant parties all funded by himself. But on paper, he is financially struggling. Child support needs to look into more than just their employment and bank funds to find out the real truth.

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  23. I have been dealing with Child Support for close to 10 years now. In that time, my children’s father has lodged 1 tax return. To my knowledge, he has he has not faced any consequence for not doing so. The one tax return that he submitted, turned out to be significantly larger than the provisional estimate that he was able to supply Child Support. I then ended up with a significant debt from Centrelink due to overpayment of Family Tax Benefit. At the time, i was privately collecting, so his large tax return was not intercepted at all. Child Support routinely allow him to submit a provisional income which is next to nothing & i have no doubt is far less than he is actually earning.
    I am currently owed around $3000, he was made redundant (which cannot be touched by child support) back in October last year. I have provided child support with various information in regards to the various jobs he has had over the last 8 months, with no luck & no payments.
    All of this while as a single mother, i am hounded by centrelink and forced to go back and verify every cent that I’ve earned over the last 10 years, even after reporting fortnightly & lodging all tax returns. If the government can find the means and the budget to follow up every single parent claiming centrelink, surely they are able to find the same to chase and verify child support assessments.

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  24. Ex got away for years with not declaring he was salary packaging. When CSA finally caught him out, he wasn’t sanctioned in any way. I still don’t know how much he underpaid me over around 15 years. When I (as self-employed) underestimated my annual income by around $3,000, I got fined, plus I had to refund the difference to him. But if I had overestimated my income, he would not have had to repay me. This system is set up by men, for men.

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  25. the father of my children has shifted his company into his mothers name & declaring to CS that he no longer owns or has financial interest in a multi-million dollar “construction” company despite this company being his actual name ie he is “joe blow” & his company is “joe blow constucting” (fake name of course). He has halved his yearly taxable earning, halving his CS contribution will not contribute to anything above CS including school fees camps etc.
    he is also buying up lots of assets ie new cars, machinery, forklifts, golf carts, caravans, trucks etc… all financed of course.

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  26. He is working cash in hand. Have supplied all details, have even supplied 3 photographs all time stamped and dated of him working in the company clothing. I left with his debts. He signed school forms for the children’s education and I am paying 100% fees. He hasn’t lodged tax. He doesn’t declare income. He deliberately causes financial hardship by taking clothing that needs to be replaced, not medically treating the children and the list goes on.

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  27. He owed us $10k for nearly two years worth of child support. He finally paid it from an insurance pay out into a joint account attached to our mortgage. He kept the balance of the payout. So effectively, I paid half of his debt. CSA say they don’t care where the money came from.
    Meanwhile he’s living in our house (which was 100% funded by me) & collecting rent from flat mates and making a profit. Property settlement going nowhere because he’s got free rent and cash income from his work – why would he want to change that? He also wants half my super (he didn’t ‘believe’ in super but he believes in mine). Half the house. And half of a trauma insurance payout I had but has long been spent on my life threatening health condition and looking after us. Kids are getting older and starting to make their own conclusions. This is not just financial abuse, it is financial abuse of their OWN CHILDREN. They are not good blokes

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  28. In 2013, the father of our children moved to the United Kingdom with his South African bride. I had initially asked the Australian Child Support Agency before he immigrated to seek an Departure Prohibition Order as his debt at the time was approximately ten grand. The case workers believed his story that his air-flight tickets were free and that he was just going to the UK for a holiday. I am wondering, why these case workers believe these stories without proof. Is it a case of discrimination? As a Mother, I have to show proof of my income every year and jump through all of the hoops whilst the Officers just take his hearsay without proof. international Child Support agency eventually tracked him down in the United Kingdom and was made to pay the debt and regular child support payments. As of the 7th October 2018 was the last payment that I received. I asked the International Child Support Agency about what was going on with my children’s financial support. Their response is that currently they are unable to track him via bank accounts, bank cards, place of residence etc. Meanwhile, I am left in Australia looking after our children and pay more rent and an reduction to Family Tax Benefits for the privilege of a document that assessed my ex husband to pay $600 a month. How is this fair?

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  29. I dont get paid child support because im “a bitch”.
    My ex claims no income, owes me thousands in CS that never gets chased up as he does not do his taxes and they dont even know his real address. As a self employed roofer, he also brags about making $300 in a days work. We also live in Sydney where rent is outrageously expensive so he can have full weekends with my son, we live in a share house with 4 other adults. We often dont have money for groceries and have to go to food Pantry charities.

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  30. 11 year old child, I have received drinks and drabs over the years. He’s travelled on lavish trips overseas. My child and I are owed $30,000. Of course I don’t live waiting for the payments I work hard to make sure we have what we need. He hasn’t done his tax in god knows how long. Why aren’t the tax department chasing these lowlifes up??

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  31. Ok. My son’s father received in excess of $170k income before redundancy a few years ago. Hasn’t put in a tax return in 17 years. After the redundancy wanted to declare income of only $40kpa. Again because he hasn’t put in his tax FT A/B cannot be updated to new higher figure. Anyway cut to the chase, CS is still estimating because of course he does not want to give the correct income. I’m nearly done. My son turns 18 next February. I have empathy for all the mum’s and children out there.

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  32. Also in all those years where is the cross referencing for ex to lodge tax each year as we have to. Where is legislation that it is mandatory for other partner to have to abide by rules that we have to!

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  33. He is working and I have sole parental rights 100% custody. I’m supposed to receive $420 a year but this year have only received less than half of it. When he lodged his tax return, for last year, it stated his income for the year was less than $12,000. Um, he rents and has a car, maybe child support and ATO agencies needs to investigate a few of these cases.

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  34. My ex is self employed, doesn’t pay PAYE tax, owes the tax department and fudges his tax returns so that his income is massively less than it should be. The ATO is not interested in cross checking how much the contractor says he pays my ex with what he claims he was paid. The difference is $100k a year. I will never get any money from a “tax return.” He will never voluntarily pay child support because he is a narcissist and that serves him no purpose to. Narcissists have no empathy and his children missing out on experiences, doesn’t matter to him at all. Until there is a tangible consequence to HIM for not paying (jail, loss of ability to renew licence etc), he will not pay. He currently owes over $18,500 and he hasn’t paid any money in over seven years since I put it in the hands of the CSA. I urge the government to make non payment of child support a crime.

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  35. No tax return lodged since 2012. Earns $250k but says he earns half that and gets away with it my fixing income through assessment procedure. Then, they say childcare is not a legitimate expense, like orthodontics etc would be, and refuse to make him pay half. As a lawyer this is indirect discrimination on the basis of sex and family responsibilities and is illegal, but they routinely make decisions like this so the discrimination is ongoing.

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  36. My ex-husband refused to pay the measly $50/week he was required to in child support for months, saying things like “Why should you live in luxury?” and “I don’t want to pay your rent”. He finally started paying once he realised he might not be able to leave the country to go on his overseas holiday if he had a large CSA debt.

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  37. I am actually the one that pays child support. I make 12$ an hr and he is military and makes darn good money. I was a stay at home mom for 13 years, but because he has them more i have to pay 250$ a month. I hate where i live because nothing is fare

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  38. Owed $22000. CSA went through him and found he was deliberately reducing his income. Set a figure and thankfully made it for the next 5 yrs so that I do not have to go through a Change of Assessment app again. He and his now wife run a successful business (and good on them for that). Has put everything in hers and her fathers name so it can’t be touched. So whilst they live a good life his kids miss out on so much. Both kids are at an age that they understand the implications his non payment has on their life. They don’t have a very high opinion of him and often ask if I can take him to Court or something to make him pay. If it wasn’t for the help my family provides I shudder to think where we might be. It is soul destroying continually having to ask your parents for help. It has been over 10 years since we seperated yet this system still allows him to continue to cause grief. You can be absolutely sure that he is not missing out on anything unlike his kids.

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  39. A quick google search shows that the current debt level in 2019 is estimated at $1.6 BILLION! Chances are this amount is significantly higher. Why is nothing being done about this?

    Well, from the Human Services own web page, dated January 2019:
    https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/topics/recovering-child-support-payments/29946

    “Recovering overdue child support
    We have powers under legislation to recover overdue child support. We can do this through:
    – income support payment deductions
    – enforcing tax return lodgment or intercepting tax refunds
    – working with third parties
    – employer or bank account deductions
    – issuing overseas travel bans
    – litigation
    – prosecution.
    We use these powers to collect child support for the benefit of the children.”

    Really? “Enforcing tax return lodgement”? In what time frame – is it after 5, 10, 15 or more years?? What level does the debt actually need to reach BEFORE “powers under legislation” are taken? From reading these comments and from personal experience, it does not seem to matter if the debt if $3,000 or $5,000 or $10,000 or $30,000 plus or non payment has occurred for 2 years old or 10 years plus – because nothing will happen.

    In itself, every single debt amount mentioned in a letter is estimated. If a payer does not lodge a tax return there is no way to actually get an accurate income level for them. The income amount is estimated – and therefore so is the debt amount. In other words, in a lot of cases the actual debt level will actually be significantly higher (potentially double or triple) due to there being an inaccurate income amount used for the calculation.

    We had the Child Support inquiry in 2014 (https://www.aph.gov.au/childsupport) – It is in writing on page 3:
    “What happens next? The Committee tabled the report in the House of Representatives with recommendations to the Australian Government to take action. The Government will now consider how to respond to the Committee’s recommendations. The Government should respond within six months, via a written statement to the House of Representatives. It may accept, partially accept, or reject the Committee’s recommendations. The Government may announce its intention to act on certain recommendations, or that it wishes to give further consideration before taking action. The Government may also implement recommendations through changes in legislation or by changes in Government policy without publishing a formal response. As soon as it becomes available, the Government response will be published on the Committee’s website”.

    5 years have now passed since that Inquiry has happened. Where is the final response to the report, it has never been released? Why not, when it was supposed to be made publicly available within 6 months? Where is the follow up to the recommendations? Are they with the non-released report?

    What successive governments don’t recognise is that we are raising the next generations of Australian voters. We won’t forgive or forget what has occurred, and nor will our children. We have very long memories.

    Financial Abuse, which is part of Domestic Violence continues year after year, courtesy of the Child Support Agency.

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  40. He quit his $80k/year job as a consultant to work in his dad’s noodle shop – since then has opened his own. Has literally been interviewed for food blogs where he publicly states that he owns this store, and reviewers on Google mention “the owner, *name*”

    He’s overseas (in NZ) so of course CSA does sweet FA because our bilateral treaty on CS does not extend to investigation. Considering 1/4 of child support debt is overseas debt, perhaps Australia should be getting it’s act together and signing onto the relevant Hague collections on international collection.

    $17k and counting, 5 year old girl. She matters, she is loved, I can only do so much.

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