Private collection information for Centrelink staff 277-51030000

Child Support will provide entitlement details to Centrelink for customers:

• with a child support assessment, or
• who have registered a court order or formal agreement with Child Support

Child support received by an FTB customer and/or their partner may affect their rate of FTB.

Customers can receive child support:

• as a cash benefit paid privately, or
• as a non-cash benefit by private arrangement

Customers choosing private collect have their maintenance income assessed using the entitlement method. An FTB instalment customer has their maintenance income estimated during the year using:

• the current child support assessment, and
• any changes to the child support assessment so far in the financial year

From 1 July 2012 for the Maintenance Income Test (MIT), customers are deemed to be collecting their child support entitlement, even if:

• they receive less than their entitlement (unless they have an exemption), or
• the amount collected exceeds their entitlement

Customers do not fail the MAT if they are privately collecting less than their child support entitlement (the deemed amount).

The customer's deemed amount will:

• apply even if the amount privately collected is less or more than the child support entitlement, or
• be equal to the amount if child support the customer is entitled to under the child support assessment

If the customer is having difficulty collecting their full child support entitlement, they have a choice of:

• discussing with Child Support the option to collect child support payments from the paying parent (including arrears owing)
• speaking with a social worker regarding a full or partial exemption
• continuing to privately collect a lesser amount (the customer will continue to be deemed to be receiving the full child support administrative assessment amount for FTB purposes)
• discharging their Child Support arrears for a child support collection period, and taking responsibility for collecting the arrears themselves. Child Support does not report the discharged arrears amount to Centrelink. The customer will need to advise the discharged arrears details, so they can be recorded as private child support income, or
• collecting arrears owed from a private collect period by Child Support. The arrears payments collected by Child Support will be automatically reported to Centrelink and included in the MIT. An adjustment needs to be made for the private collection period to which the arrears relate

Private collect customers not affected by the change:

• receive less than their full child support entitlement, and
• have a partial exemption from the MAT

This is because a determination has already been made that it is considered reasonable to collect less than their full entitlement (for example, fear of family and domestic violence).

A customer with partial exemption, will have the child support privately collected used in the MIT, not the full entitlement.

For advice about child support options customers are to contact Child Support, either online or by phone.

Refer a Child Support collect customer to Child Support if they advise they have received child support from the paying parent.

Private collect customers have to collect their full child support entitlement to receive more than the base rate of FTB Part A.