Ending a Child Support assessment 277-03150000

A payee entitled to child support can:

• elect to end their child support assessment for a child from a specified future day, and
• make their election:
• verbally
• electronically
• using the Ending a child support assessment form, or
• in writing

Where an election to end is received for a child support:

• assessment, go to Step 1 in Table 2
• agreement, go to Step 2
• assessment with a $0 liability, go to Step 3
• assessment with more than 2 carers of the same child, go to Step 4

Any party to the agreement can elect to end the assessment where:

• a child support agreement initiated the assessment, and
• the agreement is suspended

If these circumstances apply, transfer the customer to the Agreements and Court Order team to process and discuss possible impacts.

Go to Step 1 in Table 2.

Where both parents are eligible carers, neither parent may have a liability to pay child support if the annual rate for both parents is $0.

A customer can end the assessment:

• as a whole, if they have over 65% care of all the children of the case or a joint election from the relevant eligible carers is received (except in cases where a customer is impacted by family and domestic violence and has a Centrelink exemption). In these cases, either eligible carer is able to elect to end the assessment
• only for the child/ren for whom they have more than 65% care

Go to Step 1 in Table 2.

A joint election to end the assessment is required where 2 (or more) carers are entitled to child support for the same child (a parent and a non-parent carer). There is no exception even if the election is made due to reasons related to family and domestic violence.

If a joint election cannot be obtained, the customer may consider the option of private collection and a partial FTB maintenance exemption.

Go to Step 1 in Table 2.

Where the payee is not on the phone, contact them to discuss the election to end their child support assessment.

As a request to end a child support assessment is considered a sensitive process, additional identity checks must be conducted to protect the customer’s personal information

See Authenticating a Child Support customer to understand how and why authentication is conducted.

If the payee has indicated their clear intention to end the assessment, go to Step 3.

Election to end is incomplete

If Child Support is contacted in writing or online and there is insufficient information to consider it an election to end, contact the payee to clarify their intent. If the election to end an assessment is incomplete, contact the customer by phone for the required information. For example, if no specific end date was provided.

If phone contact is unsuccessful, send a 'please contact letter'. If the customer does not respond to complete their election:

• do not end the assessment
• in the Case window, document the reasons for not proceeding with the incomplete election. Note: if family and domestic violence is recorded as the reason for ending the assessment, refer the customer to the Parent Support Team

Election to end cannot be progressed

If the customer is ineligible to end the assessment, or a joint election is required, contact the customer and explain:

• the other carer(s) must also make the election to end the assessment
• case will end on a date after the election is made by the other carer(s), and
• case cannot end if a joint election is not received

Payee requesting changes to assessment

Determine and action the payee’s request if they notify:

• a terminating event has occurred, or
• they wish to collect child support payments privately and/or discharge arrears

Ask the payee why they are electing to end the assessment. If the reason is due to:

• the payer not being the parent, go to Step 4
• reconciliation, go to Step 5
• family and domestic violence, go to Table 6
• the payee being eligible for a Centrelink exemption that has:
• not yet been granted, go to Step 6, or
• been granted before the payee makes an election to end , go to Step 7
• personal choice - where none of the above reasons apply, See Table 3

The payee may elect to end their assessment if they believe the payer is not the parent. This election may occur with or without a parentage declaration under section 107.

If a parentage order has been made under s107, go to Section 107 order received by Child Support.

If a parentage order under s107 has not been made and the payee:

• knows who the actual parent is:
• they can lodge a claim for child support from the parent from the day after the initial case ends
• if the payee receives Family Tax Benefit (FTB), Centrelink will consider the payee to have continued to take reasonable maintenance action
• if a payee elects to end their case because the payer is not a parent but they have not obtained a parentage declaration, go to Step 6
• does not know who the actual parent is, and:
• they are in receipt of more than the base rate of FTB Part A, they may need to discuss an exemption from taking reasonable maintenance action with a social worker, go to Step 6 to discuss

If the payee or payer notifies they have reconciled with the other parent, go to Suspension of child support liability on reconciliation to complete this process.

If the suspension on reconciliation is already applied to the assessment and the payee elects to end their case, See Table 3.

If an election to end is received without a Centrelink exemption being granted:

• explain that mutual customers must take reasonable maintenance action to be eligible to receive more than the base rate of FTB Part A
• Centrelink may grant an exemption in certain circumstances. For example, in family and domestic violence situations or where the other parent is unknown

Does the payee want to withdraw their election to end until they seek an exemption?

• Yes:
• the assessment will not end if the payee seeks a Centrelink exemption and it is granted
• the payee must contact the agency to make a new election when they are ready to proceed. The current child support assessment will remain active until a new election to end is made
• the case can only end from a date after the new election is made
• document the decision in the Case window detailing the reasons for not proceeding with the election
• ask if the payee would like to be transferred to a Centrelink social worker to make an appointment to discuss the Centrelink exemption. See Table 3
• No:
• See Table 3

Ending due to Centrelink exemption - granted before election to end is made

If a social worker has granted a Centrelink exemption before the payee makes an election to end:

• the payee must elect to end the current assessment before it can be ended. Note: Child Support cannot end an assessment without a clear election from the payee. If phone contact with the payee to confirm their intent is unsuccessful, escalate the case to an SSO who will work with the Program Support Manager and social worker to create a targeted contact strategy
• the payee can complete an Ending a child support assessment (CS1671) form and ask the social worker to send this with their exemption information
• if an exemption is communicated to Child Support (for example, via data exchange) but the payee has not yet made an election, contact the payee and invite them to make an election

If an exemption is granted, the social worker will usually:

• try to warm transfer the payee to the Parent Support Team (PST). PST will take an election from the payee and process the end in accordance with the exemption, or
• email the template to the Parent Support Team who will contact the payee to take an election and process the end in accordance with the exemption. See Resources for the template

The Parent Support Team processes all end elections involving exemptions to ensure correct coding for Centrelink as this can affect FTB.

Check the Client Benefits window to see if the payee is currently in receipt of periodic FTB payments. The Client Benefits window does not display:

• if the parent is entitled to receive more than the base rate of FTB
• which child the FTB applies to when there are multiple children or cases
• any information where FTB is claimed as a lump sum at the end of the financial year
• any information where the parent’s current partner is the FTB recipient

If the customer does not receive more than the base rate of FTB or if the FTB recipient is a non-parent carer, an election to end their child support assessment will not affect their FTB entitlement. Go to Step 2.

If the customer does receive more than the base rate of FTB, tell them:

• their Centrelink payments may be impacted if they or their current partner, are receiving or entitled to receive, FTB for any child of the assessment:
• document the advice provided to the customer about the potential effect on their FTB
• their eligibility for other Centrelink benefits may be impacted:
• offer to cold transfer the customer to Families to discuss the implications on their benefits before electing to end their child support assessment, and
• remind them to call Child Support back if they want to end their current assessment. This will be considered a new election and the end can only apply from a date after the new election is made (an assessment cannot be ended from a past date)

Does the customer want to continue with the election to end the assessment?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, offer to transfer to a Centrelink social worker to make an appointment to discuss the withdrawal of the election to end

Explain:

• an election to end does not prevent either party from lodging an application for child support assessment in the future
• if the payer reapplies for a child support assessment, the ended case will reactivate. This does not prevent the payee from ending the case again
• the specified end date must be a date after the election to end the assessment is made
• the assessment cannot be ended from a past date, the earliest it can end is the day after their election
• if the payee wants their assessment to end retrospectively because they do not want Child Support collection to recover child support owed to them, explain this can be addressed by discharging the arrears
• the assessment can be ended from a future date, usually within the next 14 calendar days
• if the payee wishes to end the case more than 14 days in the future, tell them to call back to make their election closer to the desired end date. They must make their election a day before the desired end date, at the latest
• where the end date elected by the payee is likely to cause an overpayment, explain to the payee the option of ending the assessment from a later date in order to prevent an overpayment

Before finalising the election to end, check the following for both parents/non-parent carers:

• provisional incomes
• unreconciled estimates
• care arrangements

Update the incomes and estimates of both parents if possible.

Note: estimates are automatically reconciled when a customer's income tax assessment is issued for the relevant year. If customers lodge tax returns on time each year, their estimates will be reconciled promptly.

If an assessment will continue to be based on a provisional income or unreconciled estimates, explain:

• outstanding incomes will continue to update and reconcile the past periods, despite the current status of the case. This may result in retrospective variations to past assessments. Both parties will be notified of the variations in writing
• retrospective variations to past assessments during periods of Child Support collect may change what the account balance was when the assessment was ended, and
• arrears could accrue for the payer or a liability reduction could cause a payee overpayment. Child Support may contact the parties to discuss the collection of the retrospective variations

Role of payer/payee may swap

For example, the payee who elected to end the case may become the payer on that date. The payer/payee role of a parent may swap where:

• a provisional income is updated or an estimate is reconciled, or
• a retrospective care, Change of Assessment or objection decision has been made:
• if there is a decision in progress when the election is received, discuss the potential impacts with the payee
• the payee may prefer to opt out of collection until the decision is finalised and then decide to elect to end
• mostly, if the payee’s election was valid at the time it was made, the retrospective variation should not impact the decision to end the case

If reconsidering the decision to end the assessment, seek help from a Program Support Manager.

If arrears remain on the case, discuss the payee's options. The payee may:

• leave arrears owing for Child Support collection
• partially or fully discharge the arrears and collect them privately, or
• pursue collection of arrears through court, under section 113A of the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988

Explain to the payee:

• before the assessment actually ends, updates to either parent's income or estimates may:
• affect the arrears amount, or
• create a payee overpayment
• Child Support will try to contact them again to discuss if this occurs
• the arrears balance and confirm the amount they wish to discharge
• Centrelink implications:
• a decision about discharging their arrears may affect their benefits
• Centrelink may include the non-paid amount when assessing their entitlement to FTB part A
• this could cause a reduction to their entitlement or an FTB overpayment

Discharge cooling off period/letter

If the payee proceeds with discharging arrears, explain:

• a decision to discharge child support arrears cannot be withdrawn or reversed after the decision is finalised
• they have a 7 day ‘cooling off’ period to:
• consider their decision to discharge, and
• contact Centrelink about the potential impact
• they will receive a letter confirming the cooling off period
• they must contact Child Support by the due date if they do not want to go ahead with the discharge of arrears.
  Allow the customer time to respond. See Standard response times.
• the future due date. This ensures the expectations and consequences are clear
• if Child Support are not contacted by the due date, their discharge request will be accepted
• Child Support will send them a letter notifying them of the final decision

Send discharge letter:

• send the payee UQ13.00 - Pre discharge arrears - Payee letter
• create a Discharge Pending intray
• document the agreed due date as a reminder
• process the discharge of arrears if the payee has not contacted Child Support by the due date

Do not finalise the discharge before the due date.

See Table 4.

For situations of family and domestic violence only, regardless of the payee's Centrelink entitlement, do not contact the payer during the election to end process. The payer will be contacted in writing post-decision to inform them of the outcome, see Table 6.

In all other circumstances when contacting the payer, do not discuss the payee’s reasons to end the child support assessment.

Explain the election to end details to the payer:

• the date the assessment is to end
• the liability not yet applied to the case, including the amount and date due
• any arrears or overpayment remaining
• the effect of any updates to the assessment if it is based on a provisional income or an estimate of income
• the effect of care arrangements on Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• any changes to care arrangements (for example, relevant dependants)
• if applicable, any changes to employer withholding deductions

After the end has been processed, if there:

• are arrears owing, negotiate a payment arrangement
• is an overpayment, ask if the payer wants to:
• waive the overpayment, or
• collect the overpaid amount. Child Support will attempt to collect from the payee and refund the monies collected to the payer
• is excess cash on the ended case:
• check if the part month’s liability has been applied to the account. Discuss with the customer the amount of liability that has not yet been raised on the ended case. For example, the case ends in May and a refund is processed, however the May liability will not apply to the account until the end of the month. Discuss the amount of liability for May that will become due in June (for the period the case was still active in May)
• discuss the option to manually calculate the remaining liability and do a partial refund (leaving enough to cover the liability when it does raise) or offer to process the refund after the liability raises which would not require manual calculation

If the customer requests a full refund, Services Australia cannot keep the funds. Explain to the payer there will be 1 more payment due and payable the following month. See Step 4 in Table 1 of Excess cash on a Child Support customer's account,

See the Child Support Guide 5.5.5: Overpayments.

If child support assessments are based on either a provisional income or an estimate of income, update the provisional incomes and review any estimates of income, where possible. Tell the payer that the provisional income will be replaced when an ATO income becomes available and estimates may be reviewed/reconciled. This may result in arrears.

If care of the child/ren is shared or divided and if they are in receipt of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for the child/ren in their care, explain that ending the case may affect their FTB entitlement. Tell the payer to discuss this with Centrelink and warm transfer if required.

Before ending the assessment, review all information gathered and details provided by the payee and payer. Consider the following:

• Is the payee’s election to end clear, including the specified end date?
• Has the payee has been told:
• their election to end the assessment does not prevent either party from applying for a child support assessment in the future?
• the ended case will reactivate if the payer applies for a child support assessment? However the payee can end it again
• Have all outstanding issues impacting on the final outcome been finalised? For example, incomes updated and pending decision (for example, Non Agency Payments) finalised
• Has the arrears/overpayment amount varied since the initial election or roles have swapped?

Contact the payee if:

• the final outcome is different from what was discussed when the initial election to end was made
• there is an overpayment
• outstanding issues remain unresolved

Is additional contact with the payee required?

• Yes:
• explain any changes to the arrears/overpayment as a result of updating/reviewing the incomes/estimates of each customer
• consider new information provided and reconfirm the specified end date
• No. If the payer is:
• currently linked to employer withholding (EW), go to Step 2
• not linked to EW, go to Step 3

De-link the payer from employer deductions if the payer has:

• no other case(s), and
• no debt

If the payer has a debt not being collected, make and arrangement to repay the debt via Employer Withholding Arrears (EWA) or a s72A notice to the employer.

Do not end the employer link if:

• the payer has another case(s) and the employer is deducting child support for that case(s)
• the payer has arrears and EWA payments are in place, and
• it is appropriate that this collection option continues to be used to collect arrears

An assessment must end on a date after the election is made.

Due to Cuba requirements, record the end date in Cuba as the day before the desired assessment end date. See the Resources page for examples.

Cuba will not allow a future end date to be keyed. If a customer requests a date in the future:

• create a General follow up in-tray with the due date the day before the payee elects the assessment to end. Cuba will then allow the end to be keyed
• note the date required by Cuba to record the payee’s election to end the assessment

If the election affects:

• the whole case - all the children of the assessment:
• go to the Case/Registration window
• select the Service Option button to open the Production window
• record in the End Stage 2: S151 End form or Reconciliation section
• in the Date Liability Ends On field, record the date as the day before the liability is to end
• only some of the children of the assessment:
• go to the Case/Registration window
• select the Child Details button to open the Production window
• go to the Terminating Event section
• highlight each child individually and record each election to end separately
• in the Date Liability Ends On field, record the date as the day before the liability is to end
• a reverse case, apply to both cases irrespective of the parent's role in each case

Create a document and add to a notepad:

• document the reason for the end
• reference the legislation used to make the decision to end

From 1 July 2008, if an election has been accepted to end the assessment for all the children of a case, Service Officers must end both the original case and the reverse case that involve the same payer, payee and child/ren irrespective of the parent's role in each case.

Ensure that the payee understands that this does not stop either party from lodging an application for a child support assessment in the future.

If the payer does apply for a child support assessment this will reactivate the ended case. This does not prevent the payee from ending the case again, but they should first discuss with Centrelink their MAT exemption is still current.

Note: due to Cuba limitations, record the end date as the day before the payee wants the case to end. Cuba will end the assessment on the day after the recorded end date - this is in accordance with the current policy. See Resources for examples of recording the end date in Cuba.

After recording the election to end in Cuba, run eligibility and carefully check the results, see Eligibility Cuba Process Help, View, pend and save eligibility results. For assistance with reading the results. See the Eligibility window help.

If the changed details of the assessment are:

• correct, save eligibility
• not correct, do not save eligibility until corrected. If necessary, seek assistance from an SSO

If the payee requests the arrears be discharged:

• ensure the 'cooling off' letter was sent to the payee
• if required, re-issue the letter and follow process in Step 4 of Table 3
• where the discharge request is part of an election to end, do not delay processing the end because of the cooling off period. Process the end and discharge separately

Allow the customer time to respond. See Standard response times.

Once the cooling off period has ended, process the discharge and notify the customers.

Post-discharge notification and action, do not issue any system generated letters to notify parties of the discharge. Issue the following letters to notify each party of the outcome:

• UQ13.01 (Post discharge arrears - Payee), and
• UQ13.02 (Post discharge arrears - Payer)

Consider if care arrangements need to be altered. This may include adding a relevant dependent child.

If the case was ended due to reconciliation and either parent has another child support case, ensure that the child(ren) of the ended case are recorded as:

• a relevant dependent, and
• as being in the 100% care of both parents. See Care Cuba Process Help

If the case is ended for a non-reconciliation reason, ensure the children's care and status as relevant dependents are correctly reflected.

Any unallocated NAP remaining on a case following the ending of an assessment must be disregarded from the case.

If a new child support assessment is accepted in the future, any disregarded NAP will not apply to a new case.

This is because a NAP amount paid in one enforceable period cannot be applied to future amounts that become payable in a different child support enforcement period.

To disregard unallocated NAP credit, see Table 13 in Non-agency payment (NAP) about Enforceable maintenance liability ended or opted out with unallocated NAP remaining.

Once the application to end the assessment is accepted and processed in Cuba, the following letters are automatically created:

• MEA1-2 - Advise payee accepted application to end assessment
• MEA1-3 - Advise payer accepted application to end assessment

If the election to end the assessment has been rejected as it was made by payer and an agreement suspension period for an initiating agreement is not applicable, tell the payer of the decision verbally. No letter will be issued.

If a child support agreement initiated the child support case and there is an agreement suspension period in effect, the payer may elect to end the assessment. Where these circumstances apply, transfer the customer to the Agreements and Court Order team to process and to discuss the impact of making the election. Manual letters will also be issued to the customers when an election is accepted.

If the payee:

• indicates family and domestic violence concerns, warm transfer the customer to the Parent Support Team. Note: do not contact the payer during the process of ending an assessment in situations of family and domestic violence, regardless of the payee's Centrelink entitlement. The payer is contacted in writing once the decision has been finalised
• is in receipt of more than the base rate FTB Part A, explain that to continue to receive this rate, they need to make an appointment with a Centrelink social worker to seek an exemption from taking reasonable maintenance action. If not (or if their exemption is not granted by Centrelink), continuing with their election to end may affect their rate of Family Tax Benefit and/or eligibility for other Centrelink benefits
• does not wish to proceed with electing to end at this time or asks for more time/information to consider their options, offer to transfer the customer to a social worker for further discussion

Payees can only request the case be ended from a future date. After the case has ended, amended incomes and past assessments based on provisional incomes or estimates will be automatically updated by Cuba when tax returns are lodged. This may create arrears or overpayments on the case and trigger letters to the customers. This could place vulnerable payees in unacceptably high risk situations.

Where the payee requests Child Support:

• to not collect arrears (for example, they have retrospectively opted out or discharged the arrears):
• add 'Manual periods' for all case liabilities before the case is ended, record estimates as ‘rec no change’ to prevent reassessment letters being issued after the case has ended for family violence reasons
• update the status of any unreconciled estimates to ‘recon-no change’
• delete any estimates on the relevant case for the current financial year
• delete letters produced after the manual formula modification is set in place to ensure no letters are issued to the customers after the case has ended
• continue to collect arrears:
• do not apply 'Manual periods' to the assessments as the payee has elected for the arrears to be collected and there is a need to ensure the accuracy of any debts that are pursued
• ensure the payee understands that child support will continue to attempt to collect arrears and they should notify us if doing so could cause them safety concerns

Ensure that the payee understands that an election to end does not stop either party from lodging an application for a child support assessment in the future. If the payer reapplies for a child support assessment, this will reactivate the ended case. This does not prevent the payee from ending the case again based on the Centrelink exemption.

Note: in situations of family and domestic violence, regardless of the payee's Centrelink entitlement, do not contact the payer.

Check all assessments from the start date of liability to identify periods where a provisional or estimate of income is used including periods with a change of assessment or agreement that varies the annual rate under a formula assessment. If the parents have reverse cases, check both Cuba cases.

Tell the payee that those assessment periods will not be reassessed when tax returns are lodged.

Before processing the end, record a 'formula modification' on Cuba with a 'manual period' and the Annual Rate set equal to the assessed amount for each of these periods. If the parents have reverse cases, record the ‘formula modifications’ in both Cuba cases. Delete letters produced after the manual formula modification is set in place.

Check for any other decision in progress that may impact on the liability, such as a pending care decision, COA or objection. If there is, discuss the potential impacts with the payee. They may prefer to opt out of collection until the outstanding decision is finalised, and then decide whether to elect to end – especially if there is potential for the pending decision to result in a role reversal.

If payee requests arrears be discharged, process discharge.

Clearly document the reason for the end and reference the legislation used.

Where there are family and domestic violence concerns and the payee requests that arrears be discharged, an immediate discharge can be processed if the payee:

• has a Centrelink exemption/already spoken to Centrelink about how the discharge will affect their benefits

A Cooling off letter does not need to be sent to the payee.

Under no circumstances is the payer to be contacted about the potential discharge.

Process discharge:

• discharge arrears by amount in the Discharge arrears window, then
• discharge arrears by period in the Discharge arrears window
• select the date range of liability that has not been raised. (For example, Election to end due to exemption is 10 March 2022, the discharge by period will be 01/03/2022 - 10/03/2022 as this is the liability that has not yet been raised
• select the reason for discharge as END - PYE ELECT
• select calculate arrears
• check the Eligibility window and only save the decision if satisfied the results are accurate

Note: do not apply the 'opt out' date from a date in the past. Retrospectively changing the collection method to private collect means the full Child Support assessment will be deemed as received for FTB purposes and this will generate FTB debts.

Post-discharge notification and action:

• do not issue any system-generated letters to notify parties of the discharge. Issue the following letters to notify each party of the outcome, unless the discharge and end election were processed on the same day and the end assessment letters generated at Step 7 will meet as customer notification:
• UQ13.01 (Post discharge arrears – Payee), and
• UQ13.02 (Post discharge of arrears – Payer)
• check if post-decision action is required. For instance, if payment of arrears was via Employer Withholding Arrears (EWA), consider if the payer needs to be delinked

Record the election in the ‘End Stage 2: S151 End form or Reconciliation’ section of the production window located via the Service Option button in the Case window.

Key the end date in the ‘Date Liability Ends On’ field.

Note: the assessment cannot be ended from a date earlier than the election date, even if an exemption takes effect from an earlier date. See Resources for examples of recording the end date in Cuba.

Record the reason as ‘CLK Exemption’ where a Centrelink exemption has been granted, or ‘Other’ where an exemption was not granted.

If recording an end on the reverse case, record the reason as 'Other', not 'CLK Exemption'.

Clearly document the reason for the end and reference the legislation used.

Run eligibility in Cuba and carefully check the results. Only save the decision if satisfied the results are accurate. For assistance with reading the results, see the Eligibility window help. If necessary, seek assistance from an SSO.

Where reverse accounts of the same child support case exists (that is, reverse cases), this must be applied to both accounts/reverse cases irrespective of the parent's role in each case.

If the payee has indicated that generating letters may cause difficulties, discuss strategies for managing this with an SSO, such as issuing a manual unique letter rather than the following system generated letters.

Otherwise, once the application to end the assessment is accepted and processed in Cuba, the following letters are automatically created:

• MEA1-2 - Advise payee accepted application to end assessment
• MEA1-3 - Advise payer accepted application to end assessment

Note: if the case has ended due to family and domestic violence and arrears have been discharged, review the MEA1-3 letter to the payer to ensure it does not advise of arrears to be collected.

If the election to end the assessment has been rejected as it was made by the payer and an agreement suspension period for an initiating agreement is not applicable, tell the payer of the decision verbally. No letter will be issued.

If a child support agreement initiated the child support case and there is an agreement suspension period in effect, the payer may elect to end the assessment. Where these circumstances apply, transfer the customer to the Agreements and Court Order team to process and discuss the impact of making the election. Manual letters will also be issued to the customers when an election is accepted.