should i tell child support?

my sons dad is a few months behind in child support payments. he had just been reassessed because his previous group certificate was a very poor reflection of his current income. He tried to cry poor and gain sympathy from them because he had all these loans to pay off but he took those loans out 6 months after my little boy was born. He told them he was struggling to survivve but nevertheless they ruled in my favour.
I still havent seen a full cheque for the new amount since august and have just found out he is living it up overseas for 3 weeks because I am in contact with his family. Should i tell child support about the fact that he is on holiday? Im scared that when he gets reassessed next year they will look at his failure to pay on time as him struggling rather than the fact that he has the money but is spending it elsewhere?
Im not greedy. This money goes straight into my sons bank account which I would like for his education

Frankly, I don't think it can hurt to tell them - even if they just make a note of it now, they'll go back through everything when he gets reassessed and realise that he's not struggling.

Good luck!

Tell them. You're not getting your money, they should chase him up! Let them know you've tried this too and found he's on holiday, so you don't know what you can do now.

Let them deal with it. That's what they're paid for.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't make a difference to CSA whether he is struggling or not, if it is his liability or a court order, he has to pay. I'll email your question off to DH who works at CSA, and hopefully he can get to it soon.

I agree with all of the above, tell them. And...

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Im not greedy. This money goes straight into my sons bank account which I would like for his education

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Don't EVER think that - it doesn't matter how you spend the money, it's not his or anyone elses business but yours and you don't need to justify yourself :hug:

Ok, this is what my husband just emailed me back:

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With this one I need some more info. Has he had his assessment reduced because he 'cried poor' or is he just not paying the correct entitlement? If he can afford to go overseas then it may be a case to have his assessment increased through COA under reason 8 (however, this DOES NOT guarantee collection). If CSA had found out that he was going overseas before he left then we could have issued a departure prohibition order (DPO) as a means to 'influence' him to pay his arrears (unfortunately, not much can be done now unless the mother knows about any further trips). If the mother is not interested in getting the assessment increased even further then it's still worthwhile to tell CSA about the holiday as it will influence the type of payment arrangement that CSA will negotiate with him. Also there are always tax refund intercepts....

The only way to get him to pay is for the mother to give CSA info that could assist with collection - i.e. is he self employed? If not, who is his employer? Who he banks with? Does he have any assets in his name? Does he have an ABN? Are there any trusts? Is he a company director or is he a partner in a company? etc. etc.

when he is re-assessed when he lodges his next tax return or when the child support period expires, CSA will always look at what his and her income was in order to determine the amount of CS that he is to pay. If he goes through COA, he will have to demonstrate that his capacity to pay is really lower then what his taxable income is due to special circumstances - so it isn't based on the history of his Child Support payts necessarily. Alternatively, if his income has actually dropped then he could lodge an est of income - however if the RP knows that the income info he provides is untrue then CSA could review the est.

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Ok, this is what my husband just emailed me back:

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Thank you so very much for asking your husband I feel so much more confident about ringing them now. Im still new to all this stuff and not 100% on how everything works.

He was reassessed in August after I asked them to because he was only paying the bare minimum and they found he was earning significantly more and his child support was adjusted accordingly. This made him really upset and thats why he was crying poor to csa saying this new amount would be unfair cos he had so many outgoing expenses. But I think if you can afford a trip overseas for 3 weeks you must nt be that bad off.

Thanks again :)

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I agree with all of the above, tell them. And...



Don't EVER think that - it doesn't matter how you spend the money, it's not his or anyone elses business but yours and you don't need to justify yourself :hug:

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Thank you
You are right. Im so used to doing it because i spent so long trying to get my sons dad to see the light and at least meet his son once but I have given up now. When I look at my very handsome happy little boy I know that I have nothing to be ashamed of :)