Maintenance Action Test (MAT) for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customers 277-51070000

Child support, also known as maintenance, refers to financial and material support for children from their separated non-custodial parent(s). The terms maintenance and child support are often used interchangeably and generally have the same meaning. Maintenance is a term used by Centrelink and includes child support as well as support for a partner from a previous relationship (spousal maintenance).

It is important to remember that regardless of a customer's personal income, both parents are responsible for providing financial support for their children.

Generally, a customer is considered to be taking maintenance action and will meet the MAT if:

• an application is made for a child support assessment for a child
• a customer has a child support assessment for a child
• an application is made for a child support agreement to be accepted for a child
• a customer has a child support agreement accepted for a child
• a customer has an exemption from taking maintenance action

Even if a customer's personal income means they will only receive base rate FTB Part A, they should be encouraged to take reasonable action to obtain child support. If the customer's income later reduces and they already have a child support assessment in place, they can automatically receive more than base rate FTB.

A child support assessment will usually end when the child turns 18 years of age. To continue meeting the MAT after an FTB child turns 18, customers with a child support case in place prior to the child turning 18 must apply to Child Support to extend the child support assessment if the child will be in full-time secondary education on/after their 18th birthday. They must do this before the child turns 18 years of age.

Information is exchanged automatically between Child Support and Centrelink. For further information, see Centrelink-Child Support information exchange.

Norfolk Island, Cocos (Keeling) and Christmas Islands

Since 1 July 2016, residents of Norfolk, Cocos (Keeling) and Christmas Islands have been eligible to apply for a child support assessment.

Due to legislative changes effective from 1 July 2016, child support assessments can be made where the paying parent is a resident of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island or Norfolk Island.

A customer may advise that they have a child support assessment but the data on their record is not present or is incorrect. To action these cases, refer to Child Support data has not loaded onto Centrelink system or is incorrectly affecting customer's record.

If the customer and/or their partner is under the age of consent, then the customer is treated as single under family assistance law. The customer is not required to take reasonable action to obtain child support against the other parent. See Customer or partner under the age of consent.

However, as there is no minimum age for claiming child support, if the customer and/or their partner are under the age of consent and later separate, reasonable action to obtain child support is required.

The MAT ensures that reasonable action is taken to obtain child support for a child from a previous relationship particularly where the customer is claiming more than the base rate of FTB Part A for the child. FTB Part A for a child is limited to the base rate if a customer (or their current partner) is required to take action to obtain child support but fails to do so.

First check that an application for child support assessment is needed. In some cases, it is not applicable for a customer to take action to obtain child support.

There are some situations when a customer is not required to take reasonable action to obtain child support and satisfy the MAT. In these cases, the customer may apply for a maintenance action test exemption.

If the customer has children from more than one relationship, they need to take separate action for each child from each previous relationship.

In most cases, the customer will need to apply for a child support assessment.

Customers may:

• collect their child support entitlement privately, or
• elect for Child Support to collect child support payments on their behalf

If the customer's partner is the natural or adoptive parent and the customer is not, their partner will need to take reasonable maintenance action to obtain child support, regardless of who is claiming FTB for the child.

If the customer is required to take action to obtain child support, they must do so within 13 weeks (91 days) of the latest of:

• date child was born
• date they separated from the child's other parent
• date child entered care
• date their percentage of actual care increased to 35% or more
• the date that they first become entitled to apply for maintenance. For example:
• date of arrival in Australia
• date the other parent of the child moves to a reciprocal country (including Australia) from a non-reciprocal country. The date of event is the date given by the customer or the date Services Australia becomes aware of the payer's change of residency, whichever is earlier

The Resources page contains examples.

If the customer does not take action to obtain child support within the 91 day DMA period, they cannot be paid more than base rate FTB Part A for the child/ren.

Note:

• The Pseudo DMA Event (PDE) MAT code can be recorded manually to simulate a 91 day DMA period. This will generally be required when the above 5th DMA dot point applies as this event is not automated like the other 4 DMA events. See the Process page for further information
• A customer may claim FTB after their DMA period. This may occur when a customer arrives from overseas and is not yet residentially qualified for FTB Part A due to serving a NARWP. Consider whether it is reasonable to expect the customer to have known to take maintenance action upon arriving in Australia. If the answer is no, consider extending the DMA period

At every chance, advise customers of their obligation to take reasonable action to obtain child support.

A Maintenance Action Requirement Notification (MARNL) letter will generally issue to a customer or their current partner if they are required to take maintenance action for a child in their care and they are within their 91 day DMA period. A reminder MARNL issues 21 days later if:

• they are still within the DMA period
• no child support assessment data has been received from Child Support, and
• the initial MARNL was sent on or before day 63 of the DMA period

The MARNL letter displays as a 'NOTFAOOSC' letter on the History Summary (HS) screen.

The Resources page contains a link to mySupport and further information.

Customers may apply for an exemption from seeking child support, for example, when the other parent's identity is unknown, or there is a risk family and domestic violence. The customer may need to speak to a Centrelink social worker to apply for an exemption. However, some parentage of unknown (PNK) exemptions are assessed by Service Officers.

Customers unable to collect their full child support entitlement privately may need to ask Child Support to collect their child support payments on their behalf, or seek a partial exemption. Any decision about how a customer elects to receive their child support must be made by the customer, taking into consideration their family circumstances and information provided by Child Support.

Refer to Family and domestic violence for the proactive Risk Identification Question that can be asked when a customer is seeking an exemption.

In this case, the customer is not required to start a child support case to meet the MAT as it would not be appropriate to force the customer to apply.

The customer is exempt from the MAT. To select the correct exemption code, see MAT codes.

Once there is a favourable decision on a Section 24 assessment, the recipient is considered single.

The applicable MAT code is Child Support refused registration (CRR) for children of the current relationship. Affected children should be included in an entitlement (ENT) group.

For lump sum claimants, another carer exemption (OCX) should be applied with a group type of other (OTH).

Since 1 July 2009, FTB customers or their partner who have children from a same-sex relationship may be required to take reasonable action to obtain child support from the child's other parent.

For more information see Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and child support for children born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement or via artificial conception procedure (including children of same-sex couples).

A separate procedure applies for customers who share the care of a child or each have 1 or more children in their care.

If a child support payer's level of care increases to more than 65% and they are receiving FTB for the child/ren, they must take reasonable steps to obtain child support for the child/ren otherwise they may be deemed to fail the MAT.

For MAT implications where there has been a care change resulting in a:

• child support care suspension period, see Table 1 on the Process page
• child support care terminating event, see Table 3 on the Process page

Customers who have care of a child from a previous relationship must take reasonable steps to obtain child support to be eligible for more than the base rate of FTB Part A.

To continue to receive more than the base rate of FTB Part A for a full-time secondary student once the child turns 18 years of age, the payee in a child support case must apply to Child Support for an extension to their child support assessment prior to the child's 18th birthday. The assessment can be extended until the last day of the secondary school year in the calendar year in which the child turns 18 years of age. In some cases, an extension is not required/appropriate. See the Process page for examples and coding required to ensure the customer continues to pass the MAT in these cases.

If the child support payee does not obtain an extension to the child support assessment prior to the child turning 18, the MAT will not be met and only the base rate of FTB Part A will be payable from the child's 18th birthday until the last day of secondary school for the year in which their child turns 18 years of age. MAT requirements cease at the end of the school year in which the child turns 18 years of age, but FTB can be paid until the end of the calendar year in which the child turns 19 years of age if they satisfy education/training requirements.

Note: if the application to extend the child support case is not made prior to the child's 18th birthday, the extension to the assessment will only be granted if there were exceptional circumstances which prevented the application being made before the child's 18th birthday. The References page contains a link to the Child Support Guide 2.5.5: Application to have an assessment continue past a child's 18th birthday.

If the payee does not obtain an extension to the child support assessment prior to the child's 18th birthday, or they do apply for an extension and it is rejected, the MAT requirement will not be met and only the base rate of FTB Part A will be payable from the child's 18th birthday. If the payee has not applied for an extension to the child support assessment, Service Officers are to refer them to Child Support to apply/discuss, even if the child has turned 18 years of age.

If Child Support has refused the payee's application for an extension to the child support assessment, the customer can lodge an objection to the decision with Child Support.

If a customer claims FTB for a child who has already turned 18 years of age and is a full-time secondary student, maintenance action is not applicable. A child support application cannot be made after a child has turned 18 years of age.

Where a Deciding Maintenance Action (DMA) event occurs within 13 weeks of the child's 18th birthday and the child is a full-time secondary student (FTSS) or exempt from FTSS, the customer would not have had access to their full 13 week DMA period in which to take reasonable maintenance action for the respective child prior to the child's 18th birthday.

As the customer has not had access to their full DMA period, they are not required to meet the MAT and will not be required to seek an extension for the respective child prior to the child's 18th birthday.

However, if a customer starts a child support case for the child within the reduced DMA period, they will be required to seek an extension to the child support assessment for the child, past the child's 18th birthday, as they have already taken maintenance action. It would often be the case that this would occur at the same time the child support assessment application was undertaken with Child Support.

When a person adopts a child, they become a parent for all legal purposes.

Therefore, if another person adopts the child, taking maintenance action against the biological parent is not applicable.

However, if a couple adopt a child and later separate, maintenance action is required against the other parent listed on the birth certificate or adoption papers.

Generally the donor of any genetic material (whether ovum or sperm) used in artificial insemination by a single person have no rights and incur no liabilities in respect of a child born as a result of that pregnancy. Customers may not need to take action to obtain child support from the donor and can apply for an exemption from seeking child support.

A number of factors/scenarios will be considered in determining whether an exemption is appropriate. The Resources page in Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and child support for children born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement or via artificial conception procedure (including children of same-sex couples) has a table to help clarify the maintenance action requirements for a number of ACP scenarios.

If an exemption is not granted, the customer should be referred to Child Support to make a decision on whether a child support application can be accepted.

If there is a court order in place naming the parents of a child born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement, the intended parents will be those listed (the customer and their partner whether same-sex or opposite-sex).

If the parents were in a same-sex relationship when the child was born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement and the parents later separate, MAT requirements will depend on whether or not the surrogacy arrangement is recognised under the Family Law Act. For more information, see FTB and child support for children born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement or via artificial conception procedure (including children of same-sex couples).

Grandparents/third party carers not partnered to a biological parent of the child are not required to take action to obtain child support to receive more than the base rate of FTB Part A. However, any child support received may affect their rate of FTB Part A under the Maintenance Income Test.

Customers must contact Child Support to apply for a child support assessment.

Customers may make an application for a child support assessment online via the Services Australia website. Online is the preferred option for child support applications. If this option does not suit the customer's circumstances, customers can be warm transferred to Child Support via Interaction Workspace (iWS) Softphone. Warm transfer may be more appropriate when the customer has no immediate online access and is already receiving FTB A at base rate due to no maintenance action. For contact details, see Child Support.

If an income support customer receives Rent Assistance (RA) with FTB and they fail the MAT, RA can be paid with the income support payment until the MAT is satisfied. This will occur automatically, both changing RA over to the income support payment and back to FTB when they met the MAT.

If the customer fails the MAT for:

• all children in care, the customer’s existing HCC may be cancelled. Refer to Health Care Card (HCC) as the customer may be able to retain their HCC
• only some of the children in care, the customer may continue to be eligible for a HCC for all children, including the one/s who failed the MAT

For more information about the MAT and HCC eligibility, see Health Care Card (HCC).

If the customer has not already provided this information for each FTB child in their care from a previous relationship in their care, they can provide the information verbally.

FTB claims should not be made not-effective due to no child support details provided. Attempts should be made to contact the customer to obtain the necessary details and to discuss the MAT.