Ok Here is the story
I have a 8yr old DD who i recieve no Child support for as her Father is unknown (Long story) I do recieve FTB A+B but it will drop to $100 a F/N soon as DP Pay has gone up..
DP and i have a 1 Yr old together and DP has a DS who is 4
Ok here is my VENT sorry it will be long
DP pays his ex wife child support for his DS who we get to see for 36 hours a fortnight (we are in the process of taking her to court for alot more time then wat she is willing to give) We have our DS to DP dependants but couldnt add DD in the old formula due to her not being his anyway we have been ring child support for the last 12 months and getting a different story everytime we speak to someone its all very confusing but they have all told us that once the new formula came in we would be able to add DD to DP dependants as step children will now be included.
So i ring up on tuesday as the new formula started on the 1st and i said to the lady on the other end how do we go about adding DD to DP depenedants and she goes has he adopted her or have a court order stating that he has legal rights to her ans i said NO WE WERE TOLD WE WOULD BE ABLE TO ADD STEP CHILDREN TO DEPENDANTS AS OF THE 1st OF JULY and she goes oh yes you can but she has to have been adopted or have a court order and i said well we havent been told any of this and she goes well you would be recieveing child support for her so why would you want to add her as a dependant anyway so i say NO i dont recieve any payment for her as her father is unknown and she goes oh well ill put you throught to assessment and you can talk to them so she puts me thor to the assessment tea and the guy i got was great But he said that our case is unusual and that becoz there is no hild support case file for my DD he doesnt think we would be able to add DD becoz there is a chance we could find out who DD father is and i said to the guy WELL ARE YOU GOIN TO PAY FOR TESTING EVERY SINGLE MALE AGED ANYWHERE FROM 25 TO 35 IN AUSTRALIA TO FIND OUT WHO HER FATHER IS... coz i sure as hell arent.... and he goes i know its hard but if the father was dead or overseas we would be able to add her straight away but becoz there is a slight chance we would be bale to find out who her father is they prob wont let us add her but he would send us out all the change of assessment forms and we could fill them out and cross our fingers...
Why is it that child support and centrelink are BOTH goverment offices but yet they have DIFFERENT guildlines..... centrelink class DD as DP dependant so i lose money there but then child support cant class her as a dependant therefore we lose more money as we have to give DP ex wife more money (we dont care the money we have to give her dont get me wrong it jut pee's me off that we lose both ways)
No we are thinking is it worth added DD becoz once we send of the change of assessment and EX wife recieves it she will fight it anyway coz she has the POOPS becoz we are taking her to court to see DstepS more (due to DS asking to have more sleepovers)
And now we are having DD assessed for ADHD so that is costing a crap load of money and will continue with medication and PAED appt's and so on
We were looking at DP adopting her after seeing our solicitor he informed us that it would cost us anywhere from 10 to 15 grand and we dont have that sort of money as we are taking DP ex to court already in 2 years it has cost us nearly 10 grand alreay and prob goin to cost us atleast another 7 as we have to take her to the FMC to get the extra time with DstepS
ARGHHH its so confusing
Has anyone else had this much trouble with child support???????????
And is it worth fighting to get DD on as a dependent or should we just leave it?????
What would you do ??????
SOrry for the long post but its just so frustrating
This wont help but its just another ramble on the same wavelength......
I agree with you totally regarding govt dept's with different procedures, its just riduculous.
My dd's "blood" father does not have to pay a cent in child support because apparently he doesnt earn enough - thsi is because he is self employed and hides his money. He has managed to pay off a brand new bobcat since i left him - $50k in 4 years, nice eh? He makes enough, trust me, but he thinks he is smart cos he can get away with it.
For me i really feel for you because of the contradicting rules - so much for "helping" - if you have to be the middle man between CSA and C/link then you are more likely to give up because you will do your head in before you get any help.
My DH is a technical officer at the CSA (basically any of the members who you speak to and they don't know what to do, they call my DH and he tells them what to do in certain situations)... Anyway, i'm going to email him what you said and see what he says, and maybe PM me your email address so he can email you qns directly. He can't look up your specific case, but he can tell you what you are entitled to do, and then once you have that information, you can call up or go into your office, and ask to see a manager to get this case sorted out.
Kitt3n, i'll also ask him about assets proving income, but unfortunatly there are some tricky loopholes in the tax laws (not the CSA laws, but tax laws because thats what they base earnings one), and as much as the guys at CSA want to do something when they know the people are hiding money, there isn't much they can do.
Oh, actually, he told me last week that they are getting new powers for special enforecments.. i'll ask him about that also.
Kitt3n - i don't work for CSA, so hopefully Yael's DH will be able to give the more technical answer, but my understanding from the training we got in FAO for the reforms is that anyone that has an income below the rate of payment you'd receive if on an income support payment is going to be deemed to be earning income that they can write off at tax time, and as such, will be expected to pay a rate of child support equivalent to around $20 per fortnight. it's not a lot, but it's something - hopefully Yael will be able to get more details cos all my training stuff is at work!
we've also been told that there are more officers being employed to investigate "hidden" income from self employment (including things like assets purchases) to ensure that parents are paying what they should be paying towards their childrens upkeep. it might take a while, but hopefully it will work out in your favour.
smcgt - FAO/c'link don't look at who is a dependant of an individual for FTB purposes - they look at the family income of a couple living in a marriage like relationship. it sounds like CSA treat it very differently for the purposes of reducing child support liability. i would assume it is so that someone can't claim liability for a child of someone they live with if they have no financial liability for them iykwim?? i know it's hard, and i'm not sure if there is any evidence you've provided to centrelink to get a maintenance action exemption that might also support you at CSA - stat dec's, legal reports - anything like that?
yael, i "think" some of the enforcement powers come in terms of them being able to collect up to three times the current liability (so if it's 13 a fortnight for a newstart customer, they can collect up to 39 a fortnight) to pay amounts in arrears. this can make a HUGE difference. the child support are also able to deduct from centrelink income support payments whether the customer wants it that way or not. i believe the process for garnishing wages has been changed too, but not sure how...
BG - i also heard they could do stake outs or something to catch out the big time child support avoiders... DH is in a meeting for the afternoon, but i'll get him to pop in here tonight.
GRRRRR Child support crap.....:( (LONG)
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