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Maintenance income: loan repayments 277-51100040

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This document outlines how loan repayments (including credit cards) are assessed as maintenance income (which can affect the rate of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A) when provided as child support or spousal maintenance.

Assessing loan repayments as maintenance income

The 3 things to consider when assessing loan repayments as maintenance income are:

  • is the payment from a person liable to pay child support or spousal maintenance
  • is the customer or child able to use the asset (or credit card)
  • in whose name is the loan

Paying off a debt for the customer is not child support unless the customer is able to use the asset (or credit card).

Joint loans and ownership

If parents have a joint loan for an asset, the asset is taken to be jointly owned unless a property settlement has been finalised. If the asset is jointly owned, only 50% of any loan repayments by the payer can be assessed as child support.

Child support agreements

Child support agreements with a start date of 1 July 2008 or later are no longer manually assessed or coded by Centrelink staff, they are assessed by Child Support.

For agreements with a start date before 1 July 2008, any non-cash maintenance must be manually recorded on the Centrelink system for the period up to and including 30 June 2008. For agreements in place before 1 July 2008 that have been accepted by Child Support and transitioned under the Child Support Scheme Reforms from 1 July 2008, non-cash maintenance previously coded on the Centrelink system is maintained by Centrelink.

The Resources page contains examples of assessing loan repayments as maintenance income.

Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customer receives spousal maintenance

Determining if a payment is child support/maintenance income for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

Maintenance income: accommodation expenses

Maintenance income: health expenses

Maintenance income: motor vehicle expenses

Maintenance income: trusts

Non-cash maintenance income assessment for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

Recording private maintenance income on Centrelink systems