Child Support collection information for Centrelink staff 277-51040000

Customers can ask Child Support to collect child support on their behalf if they have a:

• current child support assessment
• court order or court registered agreement for child support, or
• child support agreement registered with Child Support

Child Support transfers child support details to Centrelink for FTB customers.

Child Support transfers any payments made by the paying parent to the customer's nominated bank account. View disbursed payments on the MNAP/MNGP screens.

Child Support follows up on non-payment of child support for collect customers and can penalise the paying parent if child support is not paid on time.

Refer Child Support collect customers to Child Support if:

• they have not received a child support payment from Child Support
• the child support payment received is less than expected
• they have received child support directly from the paying parent

Child Support collect customers on the Disbursement Method may have their FTB rate incorrectly affected when Child Support transfer a child/case end. See Effect on Family Tax Benefit (FTB) where the customer elects to suspend or end a child support assessment for further information.

For FTB instalment customers, there are 2 methods used to estimate annual maintenance income during the financial year. The methods are the Entitlement and Disbursement Method.

Customers may change the assessment method at any time.

At FTB reconciliation, the actual amount of child support collected is used to work out maintenance income for Child Support collect period.

After the end of the financial year, Child Support collect customers may benefit from the Maintenance Income Credit (MIC). The calculation of MIC occurs during FTB reconciliation or when they lodge a lump sum claim.

Child Support transfers the details of a customer’s child support entitlement and disbursements to Centrelink via the data exchange.

Customers can ask Child Support to stop collection at any time if they can arrange to receive child support directly from the paying parent. FTB customers who privately collect their child support are deemed to receive their full child support entitlement.