Determining if a payment is child support/maintenance income for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) 277-51080010

Maintenance income can be received as regular or irregular payments, as a non-cash benefit, or as a lump sum payment or transfer of assets.

A payment or benefit received by a person or child can be maintenance income if:

• it is from a person liable to pay child support or spousal maintenance and
• it is provided as child support for an FTB child or as partner (spousal) maintenance

If the customer receives child support and:

• they have registered their child support case for collection by Child Support, they should be referred to Child Support if they receive child support directly from the paying parent
• they have chosen private collection, from 1 July 2012, the customer will be deemed to receive their full child support entitlement
• it is part of a child support agreement accepted by Child Support, assessment is automatic from 1 July 2008. For agreements with a start date before 1 July 2008 any non-cash maintenance income may need to be manually coded by Child Support Unit staff. See Maintenance Income Test (MIT) for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

If a customer elected to privately collect their child support, Centrelink assumed the customer received their full child support entitlement. If a customer privately collected less than their full child support entitlement, they would fail the Maintenance Action Test and their FTB Part A would be restricted to the base rate for the child/ren, unless the customer was granted an exemption or changed to child support collection.

Spousal maintenance may also be included as maintenance income under the Maintenance Income Test and may affect the rate of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A, if it is received from a person who is liable to pay child support. Spousal maintenance is usually paid privately. Child Support can only collect spousal maintenance in limited situations.

Maintenance income, including spousal maintenance, is not ordinary income for income support payments (assets transferred as spousal maintenance are not exempt assets). If spousal maintenance is received from a person who is not liable to pay child support, the amount is not recorded on the customer's record and will not affect the customer's FTB or their income support payments.

Child support received for a child after the child is no longer an FTB child is not treated as maintenance income. If the child has turned 18, the case should be referred to the Child Support Unit.