Non-pursuit of employer Child Support debts 277-04250000

Policy

The Child Support Guide 5.2.4 Employer Obligations for Collection from Salary or Wages

The Child Support Guide 5.7: Non-pursuit of debt

The Child Support Guide 6.1.1: Child Support Registrar's Powers

The Child Support Guide 6.1.2: Delegation of powers

The Child Support Guide 6.1.3: Authorisation to make decision on another's behalf

Legislation

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Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013

Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014, Section 11 Recovery of debts

Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988, Sections 4 and 80

Delegations and authorisations

The Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) provides that certain staff within Child Support may hold a delegation to approve the non-pursuit of a debt.

Although the delegations provide for APS 3 and up to authorise a non-pursuit of debt depending on the debt level, the agency has restricted the authorisation to:

• EL1s who manage staff that have responsibility for debt recovery, or
• the relevant EL1 or their delegate in Employer Services for non-pursuit of employer debt

The practice of a minimum EL1 level approval is an internally endorsed process.

The official financial delegations to approve non-pursuit of administered debt before 2 April 2018 are provided in Accountable Authority Instructions – section 5 Debts.

Note: non-pursuit delegation amounts relate to the total debt amount not just the maintenance debt.

For more information about authorisations and delegations see the Accountable Authority Instructions.