Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customer not receiving full child support entitlement privately 277-51070060

Private collect customers are not required to advise minor variations. Customers who collect their child support privately and advise that they are collecting more or less than their child support assessment amount will only need to have the actual amount received recorded if they:

• have a partial exemption in place
• discharge any outstanding child support arrears
• are owed any unpaid child support from a private collect period, or
• privately collect their ongoing child support entitlement in addition to amounts owed from a period prior to 1 July 2012

Customers are not obliged to ask Child Support to collect the child support payments on their behalf if they are receiving their ongoing entitlement.

If there are family and domestic violence indicators, see Family and domestic violence.

From 1 July 2012 a customer will no longer fail the Maintenance Action Test (MAT) for a child if they privately collect less than their full child support entitlement (the deemed amount).

The customer's deemed amount will:

• apply regardless of whether the amount actually collected under private arrangement is more or less than the full child support entitlement
• be equal to the amount assessed by Child Support

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). See Applying for Child Support collection and effect on Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• Speaking with a social worker regarding a full or partial exemption. See Exemptions from seeking child support for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customers
• Continue to privately collect a lesser amount, however, for FTB purposes they will be deemed as receiving their full child support entitlement

Retrospective child support assessments

Where a retrospective assessment is received from Child Support, customers will have their FTB reassessed based on the new assessment details. Where this impacts the:

• 2011/2012 financial year - any non-paid amount owed as a result of the retrospective assessment may be taken out of the FTB assessment for the period the customer was privately collecting their child support
• 2012/2013 and later financial years - the non-paid arrears amount cannot be taken out of the FTB assessment for the period the customer was privately collecting their child support. Customers who privately collect their child support are deemed to be receiving their full child support entitlement regardless of the actual amount being collected for FTB purposes. Where reconciliation has already occurred, the retrospective reassessment may cause a re-reconciliation to occur. If the amount of child support payable is retrospectively:
• decreased, the customer may receive arrears of FTB
• increased, the customer may incur an FTB reconciliation debt. In this scenario, the customer can appeal the FTB reconciliation debt with Centrelink

If the customer wants to discuss or appeal the retrospective change to their current child support assessment, refer them to Child Support.

Customers may have other choices and may need to take other action if they have a:

• court order or court registered agreement, or
• child support agreement

If the paying or receiving parent's income has reduced, they can ask Child Support to use an estimate of their current income to reassess child support liability.

Does the customer have NAC (Actual payment below entitlement and no exemption recorded) MAT fail code displaying on the Maintenance Action result (MNMR) screen for children in the payer group?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 4

• select child from the Maint Ent Grp Summary (MNGS) screen
• navigate to the Actual Maintenance Collect - Child (MNAC) screen
• delete actual maintenance amounts recorded with a start date on or after 1 July 2012; and/ or
• zero off actual maintenance amounts recorded prior to 1 July 2012 using a DOV of 1 July 2012
• repeat the coding for each child in the maintenance group

If the DOV of the deleted maintenance amounts:

• do not extend beyond 1 July of the previous financial year, finalise the activity and record a DOC with details of the action taken
• are ended with a DOV prior to 1 July of the previous financial year, do not finalise the activity. Record an escalation DOC, place the activity on hold and refer the record to Level 2 Policy Helpdesk. with the following details:
• Customer impacted by ‘NAC’ MAT fail code
• Actual maintenance amounts removed using a DOV of XX/XX/XX, for each affected child. Please determine if arrears should be inhibited and FRMA coding completed for periods prior to 1 July of the previous financial year

See the Resources page for a link to the Level 2 Policy Helpdesk.

• Yes, remind the customer that they may also ask Child Support to collect non paid arrears from the private collect period. Child Support will tell Centrelink of the change in collection method. If the customer asks Child Support to collect arrears from the private collect period, the customer should contact Centrelink so that maintenance income details for that period can be adjusted to reflect the amount the customer received. See Applying for Child Support collection and effect on Family Tax Benefit (FTB). Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 5

The customer can seek a partial exemption enabling them to collect whatever they can privately, without the full deemed amount being applied. If the amount they are collecting privately changes, they must tell Centrelink.

• Yes, see Exemptions from seeking child support for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customers. Procedure ends here
• No,
• Check if the paying or receiving parent wants to change the court order or court registered agreement. If so, they must apply to the Family Court
• Refer the customer to Child Support if the paying or receiving parent wants to discuss or change the child support assessment or child support agreement. For contact details, see Child Support

If there are family and domestic violence indicators, see Family and domestic violence.