Contact details
Integrated Care Team
Macros
Care change
Objections – Pre objection discussion
Letters
Services Australia has endorsed these letters or electronic messages for use. They are the latest version. Do not use locally produced letters or electronic messages.
MX1-1 16.03 Care – request to call
UQ16.02 Care contact – evidence requested
Care calculators
Child Support Agency care estimator
External websites – School term dates
See the below websites to find upcoming dates for Australia's state and territory government school holidays.
NSW
NSW Government > Education > Schooling > Calendars
VIC
School term dates and holidays in Victoria | (www.vic.gov.au)
SA
Department of Education South Australia > For parents and families > Term dates calendars
WA
Department of Education WA > Learning and support > At school > Term dates
QLD
Queensland Government Education > About us > Calendar
Tas
Tasmanian Government - Department for Education, Children and Young People > Learning > Term dates and holidays
NT
NT.GOV.AU > Education and learning > Primary and secondary students > School term and holiday dates in NT
ACT
ACT Government Education > Public School Life >Term dates and public holidays
Examples
Unable to determine percentage of care
Table1: this table provides an example on use of point of agreement – percentage of care.
Item | Example |
1 | Point of agreement - percentage of care Nelly and Trent are the parents of child Ron. Ron lives mainly with Nelly. Trent has care of Ron every second Saturday night and some holiday care, totalling 42 nights or 11%. Trent calls Child Support to advise that Ron’s care has changed. Trent expects that Ron will be in Trent’s own care for 2 nights per week during school terms and at least 3 nights per week during school holidays. This would be a care percentage of 31% (40 × 2 = 80 and 12 × 3 = 36, a total of 116 nights). Nelly confirms the care has changed and that Ron is now spending more time with Trent. However, Nelly advises that Ron will be working and staying with Trent 2 nights per week during school terms and 2 nights every second week of the school holidays. This is a care percentage of 25% (40 × 2 = 80 and 6 × 2 = 12, a total of 92 nights). As the new care pattern has only recently commenced, there is no established pattern of care for the school holidays. Both parents agree that Ron will spend at least 92 nights with Trent. Based on that 'point of agreement', Trent will have a care percentage of 25% and Nelly 75% for Ron. Note: always perform the point of agreement test on the person who is gaining care by comparing their previous care percentage to their new care percentage working upwards. In the above example, the person gaining care is 'Trent'. Trent’s previous care percentage is 11%. Working upwards from 11%, this means the point of agreement is 25%. The net care decision would therefore be 25% care to Trent (and 75% care to Nelly). |
Investigating care
Table 2: this table has an example of the importance of investigating before making a care decision and demonstrates clarifying information through quality care conversations.
Item | Example |
1 | Nelly advises that Ron has been in Nelly’s care 100% of the time since 13 July 2024. Other parent Trent has moved interstate. There is no written care arrangement in place. Trent agrees that Ron’s care has changed. However: - Trent states the care could not have changed on 13 July 2024. That was Trent's birthday weekend. Trent remembers caring for Ron for the entire weekend and returning Ron to Nelly’s house on Monday 15 July 2024
- Trent also claims plans were to take Ron overseas for 8 weeks during the 2024 Christmas holidays
- Trent advises that during the care period Ron is with Trent for 56 nights (15%)
Nelly is contacted again to discuss Trent’s claims. The service officer explains how Services Australia makes a decision about the amount of care to be used in their Child Support and Centrelink assessments and supports Nelly by investigating potential event dates. During the conversation: - Nelly recalls that Ron was with Trent on their birthday weekend and confirms the care did change on Monday after the birthday weekend
- The service officer asks further questions about the dates of the weekend, and Nelly advises that this was 13-14 July 2024, so the correct date of the care change is Monday, 15 July 2024
- Nelly also agrees that Trent is taking Ron overseas for 8 weeks over Christmas to see family
- Nelly explains that as the overseas trip was a one-off and not a permanent change, so this was not included in the original notification
As a result, the service officer is able to determine that the correct date of event of the care change is 15 July 2024 and the level of care would be measured over the whole care period. As both Nelly and Trent agree on the facts of the change in care, the service officer can make a care decision using the correct date of event and percentage of care as agreed by the customers. |
Calculating care
Table 3: this table has examples of how to calculate the percentage of care based on nights using the care estimator and how to calculate care other than in nights.
Summary: Table 3: this table has examples of how to calculate the percentage of care based on nights using the care estimator and how to calculate care other than in nights.
Item | Example |
1 | Nelly and Trent are the parents of child Ron. Ron lives mainly with Trent. The family lives in Queensland. Nelly has care of Ron every second Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, with no change during the school holidays. This totals 78 nights of care, or 21%, to Nelly. Nelly contacts Child Support to advise Ron’s care has changed. Nelly advises: - the school term pattern remains the same
- from the 2026 term 1 school holidays, Ron would be spending:
- one week of the term holidays with each parent and
- alternating weeks of the end of year school holidays
Trent confirms Ron’s care has changed as reported by Nelly, and this started from the 1st Monday of the term 1 school holidays. The service officer locates the term dates for Queensland to confirm the term 1 school holiday start date and entered 6 April 2026 in the ‘care period starting date’ field in the care estimator. To enter Nelly’s care the service officer: - selects ‘Recurs every second week’
- ticks Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, and
- selects the ‘select nights’ button
- then manually adjust the calendar by adding school holiday care, remembering to remove any pre-populated nights in the other carers holiday care periods
After selecting all relevant dates, the service officer selects ’calculate’ in the ‘Total care estimate’ box. The estimator displays the calculated number of nights, percentage and the care level. In this example Nelly’s care of Ron has increased to 102 nights, which is 27%. As both Trent and Nelly confirmed the facts of the change in care, the service officer can make the care decision applying 27% care to Nelly. |
2 | Nelly and Trent are the parents of child Ron. Ron lives with Trent 100% of the time. Nelly contacts Child Support to advise Ron’s care has changed. Nelly advises she does not have any overnight care of Ron, due to working night shifts, but cares for Ron significantly during the day. Nelly advises every week, they have the follow care patten: - Monday to Friday, 9 am – 2 pm, and
- Saturday and Sunday, 8 am – 5 pm
Trent confirmed the facts as reported by Nelly. To manually calculate the hours in care, the service officer needs to determine the number of hours Nelly has care and the number of hours in the recurring period, in this case a week. Calculation: - Monday – Friday (9 am – 2 pm): 5 hours x 5 days = 25 hours
- Saturday – Sunday (8 am – 5 pm): 9 hours x 2 days = 18 hours
- Total hours care to Nelly: 43 hours
- Total weekly hours: 24 hours x 7 days = 168 hours
- Care percentage: 43 hours ÷ 168 hours x 100 = 25.59%
- Rounding rules: 25%
This calculation must then be submitted to the service officers relevant APS5 delegate for consideration. |
3 | Nelly and Trent are the parents of child Ron. Ron lives with Trent 100% of the time. Nelly contacts Child Support to advise Ron’s care has changed. Nelly advises they have some overnight care and significant day time care. - During the school terms, they have care of Ron:
- Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 6 am – 4 pm, and
- Saturdays,9 am – 5 pm
- During school holidays they have alternating weekly care
Trent confirms the facts as reported by Nelly. The service officer applies the below method to manually calculate the hours in care. Calculation: - Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (6 am – 4 pm): 10 hours x 3 days = 30 hours
- Saturday (9 am – 5 pm): 8 hours
- Total hours care to Nelly: 38 hours per week during school terms
- Total school term hours to Nelly = 38 weekly hours x 40 weeks = 1,520 hours
- School holiday periods: 168 weekly hours x 6 weeks = 1008 hours
- Total hours to Nelly: Term hours 1,520 + Holiday hours 1008 = 2,528 hours
- Total yearly hours: 24 hours x 365 days = 8,760
- Care percentage: 2,528 hours ÷ 8,760 hours x 100 = 28.88%
- Rounding rules: 28%
This calculation can then be submitted to the service officers relevant APS5 delegate for consideration. |
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