Who can apply for child support? 277-51020010

Eligibility for child support:

• Customers may apply for a child support assessment and/or ask Child Support to collect from the paying parent if they have a child support assessment or a registered child support agreement
• In shared care arrangements, customers must have at least 35% actual care of the child to be eligible for a child support assessment
• The person from whom child support is claimed must be a person liable to pay child support or spousal maintenance. If a step-parent claims Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for their partner's child/ren; that is, the customer is not the child's parent for child support purposes but is partnered to the child's parent, it must be the parent and not the step-parent who applies for a child support assessment for the child
• If the paying parent is living overseas, eligibility for a child support assessment and Child Support collection depends on whether or not they are living in a country with a reciprocal child support agreement
• Child support is payable up to the end of the school year in which the child turns 18. The parent however must apply for child support prior to the child's 18th birthday for child support to be extended past the child's 18th birthday
• If a customer provides care for a child and they are not the parent (for example, legal guardians, grandparents or other family members), they may be able to apply for Child Support against both of the child’s parents

From 1 July 2008, if parents share the care of a child or if each has one or more children in care, Child Support registers only one child support case instead of two. The system will only establish an electronic link with one Centrelink customer (the child support payee) at the time the link is established. This means that information will not be received electronically from Child Support to show that the other party (generally the payer) has met the MAT.

If both parents are FTB customers, manual coding is required on the other parent's record to reflect the MAT status and prevent the paying parent's FTB Part A rate being restricted to base rate. See Maintenance Action Test (MAT) for customers with shared care.