Relevant period for maintenance for Maintenance Income Test (MIT) 277-51080040

Jan and Mal separate on 8 March 2001. Jan attends the local Centrelink Service Centre on 9 March 2001 and claims income support on the same day. Jan calls Child Support the same day to apply for a child support assessment and chooses to collect child support privately.

At this point, Centrelink will assume the end of the relevant period will be 30 June 2001 unless Jan advises a further change in circumstances.

Child Support processes the application on 1 April 2001, the assessment backdated to 9 March 2001, i.e. the day of contact. Jan then reconciles with Mal on 28 April 2001 and requests Child Support end the assessment on that day. The reconciliation fails and Jan reclaims income support and reapplies for a child support assessment on 15 May 2001.

Jan's situation remains unchanged as at 30 June 2001.

The customer's relevant period for the financial year in this instance would be 9 March 2001 - 27 April 2001 and 15 May 2001 - 30 June 2001 (a total of 97 days).

Child support received on or after 1 July 2001 (including arrears) would be included in the new financial year.

Bill's Child Support assessment commences on the 1 September 2005. Bill and Gemma reconcile and request Child Support end the case on the 30 April 2006. The customer's relevant period would be the 1 September 2005 to the 29 April 2006.

However, if Bill had not requested to end the case, the relevant period would be 1 September 2005 until the 30 June 2006.

Philippa is single and has 3 children Freda, Carmine and Willow in care from a previous relationship. During the 2014/15 financial year there were a number of changes of care for the children.

Freda and Carmine were in Philippa's care prior to 01 July 2014, subsequently left care on 11 January 2015 and returned to Philippa's care on 21 February 2015. This means they were in Philippa's care for 324 days during the 2014/15 financial year. Willow was in Philippa's care prior to 01 July 2014 then left care on 04 October 2014.

There are 2 relevant periods in this case 01 July 2014 to 10 January 2015 and 21 February 2015 to 30 June 2015, as the remaining 2 children to the case (Freda and Carmine) left care for the period 11 January-20 February 2015. The total number of days in the 2 relevant periods is 324.

Even though Willow left the customer’s care on 4 October 2014, the maintenance liability remained in place for the other 2 children, and therefore the first relevant period did not end until 11 January 2015.

When the other 2 children returned to the care of the customer on 21 February 2015, a new maintenance liability was put in place, and therefore a new relevant period commenced. This second relevant period finished at the end of the 2014-15 financial year.

Although there are 2 relevant periods, there is no need to do a separate calculation for each period when annualising the amount of maintenance income. The formula for annualising maintenance income states the division is by the total number of days in the relevant period or periods in the income year. In this case the total number of days in the 2 relevant periods is 324.