what do centrelink consider defacto?

[tattoo_mama]

as most of you know i have broken up with XP and am currently in the process of getting a VRO against him. i have sortof started seeing someone new but im not living with them, its just a 'boyfriend/girlfriend' thing at this stage....but im worried cause im on the PPS. just cause i have a boyfriend do i have to let centrelink know and theyll cut me back to PPP? or is only once your living together that your considered defacto and cut back to PPP? im all confused!!

[*TripleJ*]

its only when u live together it doesnt matter if ur seeing anyone

[Cupcake]

its only when u live together it doesnt matter if ur seeing anyone

:yeahthat:

xo

[Nelle]

I imagine that it's only when you're living as a married couple would, that it's considered de facto. I'm guessing they know that your XP is an X, that's probably the only thing they'd need to know for now.

(by the way, all of your beautiful signature is supposed to be aligned to the left, not centred, just letting you know.)

[briggsy's girl]

just want to clear up the misconception that you have to be living together. you don't have to be co-residing to be considered defacto. other things are taken into account. the whole idea that "if we spend less than 4 nights sleeping over we're not a couple" is a crock

yes, living together is a huge factor, but being deep enough into a relationship that you have joint finances, are seen by the community to be in a "marriage like relationship" etc... it's not as black and white as people think. look at my situation. DH works away (well was til last week) at least 5 nights a week - should i be classified as single cos he only shares my bed 2 nights a week??

TM - being in the early stages of your relationship, no one is going to expect you to be considered to be in a marriage like relationship - but keep what i've said in mind if things start to get "deeper"...

HTH

[Glamourcide]

BG can probably jump all over this one as she's an expert and I'm just going on what a friend of mine told me recently about her situation (she's got two kids to her ex and now lives with her partner and they have a son together)... something about how even if you are considered to be in a 'marriage-like' relationship with your new man (who, if he's the dude in your FB pic, score!!! Got yourself a cutie!), it's a different situation because he's not your bub's dad?? I dunno the specifics, my friend was telling me the other day that she gets pretty good money from C'Link despite her partner being a relatively high income earner, because he's not the girls' dad, just her son's, so C'Link only takes their son into account when calculating her FTB etc and then pays her pretty much the single rate for her two girls because their dad isn't the one their mum's in a relationship with??
Again, I'm probably way off on that one but yeah, that's what my friend said - and I know she wouldn't have it in her to rort the system because she's so scared of things like police and going to court and her kids thinking she's a bad person (which is unerstandable lol, we all want our kids to see us as perfect!), and she has no idea of how it all works, she just tells them the truth about what she's doing and gets paid whatever they decide she's entitled to...

Uhh... that made no sense. What I'm trying to say is that maybe it's a different situation if the person you're in a relationship with isn't the father of your kids??

[briggsy's girl]

if you are in a marriage like relationship with someone, their income impacts the FTB for all children in your care. if you are seperated from the father of your children (as is the case in Donna's scenario) the child support you're entitled to only impacts the payments for the children of that father (if changes they were talking about went through - previously CSA payments impacted all children). so, in that scenario, the two children from previous relationship would have their FTB impacted by both child support and by the current income of the "family unit". the third child, of the current relationship, would only be impacted by the income.

it's complex because things like shared care etc come into it - if the children are in the mum's care more than 65% of the time, she is entitled to 100% of the FTB entitlement for those children (depending on family income) - she would just have a reduction in child support if the children are in their dad's care between 14 and 34% - it's a PITA to work out, but if she has been honest (which it sounds like she has been) she'll be fine.

[~clover~]

My DH lives away for work. Might come home once a fn or once a month. We are still together according to centrelink (well we are still together, lol). He's never home more often than that & its only for 2 or 3 nights at a time.
We were actually entered as defacto back when we were just 16 & 18. Not sure 100% if it was right, but we'd been seeing each other 6 months & I had to go in to get youth allowance after loosing my job. He came with me & she asked if we were defacto. I told her I had no idea & she said are you sleeping together. I said yes & thats how early it happened for us. We weren't living together, so as I said I don't think it was right, but its a bit late now. It did actually help when I wanted to move out of home coz it proved how long we'd been together (being only 17 I was allowed to move out if we'd been in a relationship for more that 12 months).

Its all pretty confusing

[2CheekyMonkeys]

sheesh, asking if you are sleeping together is stepping over the line a bit isnt it! :-/

[~clover~]

I thought that at the time too, but was young & niave & tbh I think thats what she saw. As I said I really don't think it was right.

[briggsy's girl]

your circs weren't right skye - you're only considered to be partnered if you're in a marriage like relationship. IF you were trying to claim independent youth allowance so that your parents incomes don't come into it, they may have used your relationship status as a way to help with that - you either have to have been working a certain amount of time after leaving school AND earn a certain amount, or be a member of a couple in a defacto relationship...

[~clover~]

Well BG, no I wasn't trying to claim indepedant YAL. I'd been working for about 3 months. Then didn't go back to CL for payments for about another month. Honestly didn't know any different.

[briggsy's girl]

might have been because your partner was there

essentially, if you haven't been out of school at least 18months and earned, in that time, at least 17k (i think) you are still considered dependent on your parents so their income impacts your entitlement...

it's obviously well and truly done and dusted now, and hasn't had a negative impact on you - just wanted to put it out there for anyone else that may be reading!

[tattoo_mama]

if a c'link officer asked me if i was sleeping with someone id put in a complaint!!!
he stays over once a week, we hang out a little bit during the week, definately not a marriage-like relationship....

[briggsy's girl]

you're fine then TM