Ongoing contact and child support assessment for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) 277-51130000
Expand allThis document outlines the impacts for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customers whose circumstances change after they have taken initial action to obtain child support. It contains procedures that cover changes in action to obtain child support, child support options and maintenance income.
Changes to child support assessment and collection
In most cases, initial action is taken by applying to Child Support for a child support assessment. Child Support electronically transfers to Centrelink details of child support entitlement and disbursements. Child Support may advise of a retrospective change in child support entitlement.
After taking initial action to obtain child support, customers may contact Centrelink to:
- advise a change in maintenance income received
- advise a change in collection method (private or Child Support collect)
- request a change in the way annual maintenance income is estimated during the financial year (entitlement or disbursement method) if they are Child Support collect
- vary or end a child support assessment
- advise an arrangement to collect child support arrears or to repay child support for a previous income year as a result of a retrospective child support assessment
Advising FTB customers of the effect of the change
Service Officers should advise FTB customers of the effect of the change on their rate of FTB Part A, in terms of the Maintenance Action Test and Maintenance Income Test. If maintenance income is reassessed, details of the effect on a current FTB instalment rate and the likely effect at FTB reconciliation should be provided.
Before 1 July 2012, under the Maintenance Action Test (MAT), customers who elected to privately collect their child support had to collect their full child support entitlement to be paid more than the base rate of FTB Part A.
From 1 July 2012, if it is reasonable (i.e. the customer is not eligible for an exemption, such as a fear of family and domestic violence) for a parent to take action to privately collect their full entitlement, the parent will be deemed to receive their full child support entitlement for the Maintenance Income Test (MIT), regardless of whether or not they receive less than their entitlement, or when the amount collected exceeds their entitlement.
The rate of FTB Part A for a child will no longer be restricted to the base rate due to the parent privately collecting less than their full child support entitlement (the deemed amount).
In some cases, details will need to be confirmed with Child Support before updates can be made. There are protocols in place for contact between Centrelink and Child Support.
When a child/case end is transferred by Child Support for a Child Support Collect customer on the Disbursement method, the system retrospectively changes the case to Private Collect and applies the full maintenance entitlement amount.
This retrospective change in assessment results in the customer having their annualised maintenance income assessed under the Entitlement Method. In the majority of cases, this will result in a decrease in the customer's ongoing rate of FTB Part A. This change in annualised maintenance income can also invoke Mandatory Continuous Adjustment, causing a further reduction to the customer's ongoing rate of FTB.
Note: this is not caused by incorrectly entered/ended case data or a system problem, however it can lead to an unintended and unexpected reduction to the customer's ongoing rate. Occurrences of this issue must be reported to the Level 2 Policy Helpdesk for escalation to the Policy (Advice) Assessment Team for a workaround to be considered. See the Resources page for a link.
The Resources page contains a link to the Level 2 Policy Helpdesk.
Contents
Retrospective Child Support assessments and Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
Amending maintenance income details on the Override Maintenance Income (MNOI) screen
Action required when Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customer no longer entitled to child support
Changing from Child Support collection to private collection: effect on Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
Transfer of information between Centrelink and Child Support
Child Support data has not loaded onto or is incorrectly affecting customer's record
Related links
Child Support collection information for Centrelink staff
Maintenance Action Test (MAT) for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customers
Maintenance Income Test (MIT) for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
Private collection information for Centrelink staff
What to check when Family Tax Benefit (FTB) rate has changed