Deductible Child Maintenance Expenditure (DCME) 108-01070080

DCME includes child support paid through Child Support, and child support paid directly to the recipient parent, or non-cash amounts such as the payment of school fees.

Make sure that:

• the person is the paying parent of a child support assessment, or other agreement with a liability greater than nil
• it is paid to a person other than the customer's partner
• the child is the natural or adopted child of the person paying the child support, and
• it does not include spousal maintenance
• the amount applies to the income year that the expense is paid, including where arrears are paid for previous years
• if a customer has included child support arrears that relates to unpaid amounts for an earlier financial year, complete a review of the DCME for the earlier financial and adjust if necessary. See Updating estimate for a previous year

The deduction for maintenance expenditure is applied against the income of the individual who incurred the expense. If the expense exceeds the income of that individual the remaining expense can be applied against the combined family income. The family income cannot be offset to an amount less than nil.

Evidence is only required where there is reason to believe the amount estimated is not reasonable.

Payments made through Child Support (CSA collect cases)

Periodic (cash) payments are captured in a child support assessment.

Non-periodic (non-cash) payments are not captured in a child support assessment but are considered DCME for family assistance purposes.

Private arrangement cases

These payments are not captured in a child support assessment.

Examples of evidence collected by CSA and private arrangement customers include:

• a statement from Child Support confirming how much Child Support they have paid
• bank statements or receipts of payment
• court orders outlining the amounts the payer is liable to pay (or a copy of a formal agreement)

In some cases, the customer can make a statutory declaration.

If the current financial year estimate does not appear reasonable:

• request evidence, and
• send a request for a revised estimate (FA078). Follow the process in Table 2 of Helping families provide a reasonable annual income estimate for family assistance payments

If the estimate is provided for:

• the current financial year, in most cases the Family Income and Choices workflow is used to record the estimate of DCME for the customer (and their partner). For more information, including manual coding instructions and coding in Process Direct for CCS only customers, see Updating income estimates for the current financial year
• a previous year, view and record the estimate of DCME on the FAO Income for Previous Year (FIPY) screen. See Updating estimate for a previous year
• at reconciliation or for a previous year lump sum claim, income assessment details can be viewed on the FAO Income Component Summary (FICS) screen within the reconciliation assessment

The DCME estimate needs to include all child support the customer (and their partner on the date of the claim) expects to pay during the 6 month period beginning on the day the stillborn child was delivered.

See Processing claims for Stillborn Baby Payment (SBP)

For a Parental Leave Pay (PPL) claim, the primary carer's DCME estimate should include all child support paid during the financial year preceding the date of claim or the child's date of birth/adoption.

See Paid Parental Leave income test and previous financial year income estimate.