Collecting and enforcing child support

Child support payments can be collected privately or by Services Australia.

If you or your ex-partner are living overseas there will be specific rules for collecting and paying child support. 

When you need legal advice

Get legal advice if:

  • you’ve got concerns about any child support or child maintenance issues—including the Services Australia decisions, collection and enforcement
  • you’ve got a dispute with Centrelink about taking reasonable maintenance action
  • you need proof of parentage or a court order to claim child support.

How to get legal advice

Collecting child support payments

There are 2 ways you can collect child support payments:

  • privately
  • through Services Australia.

Private collection

Both parents can agree to have child support payments collected privately (e.g. directly into a bank account). This doesn’t have to be in writing.

Private collection works well if both parents complete tax returns when due and keep Services Australia up to date with any changes in their circumstances.

If private payments get behind or stop, or if you cannot agree on the amount that should be paid, get legal advice immediately.

If you are the receiving parent, and are having difficulty collecting child support, you should contact Services Australia and ask them to start collecting for you. They can take over responsibility for ongoing collection and any outstanding payments going back 3 months (or 9 months in some circumstances).

Services Australia (Child Support)

Once you register with Services Australia, they will:

  • collect payments made under an administrative assessment or a child support agreement
  • enforce payment, if necessary, through salary deductions or regular payments to them, or by taking the parent who isn’t paying to court.

Learn more about Services Australia (Child Support)

Reassessments after late tax returns

If the paying parent doesn’t put in tax returns and then puts them in late, Services Australia will reassess those periods and may identify that more child support should have been paid for those years. This will create a child support debt for the paying parent.

If Services Australia was responsible for collecting child support during this time, then they will be responsible for recovering the debt.

If you were collecting child support privately, then you will have to try and recover the money from the paying parent yourself.

Child support assessments—proof of parentage

Services Australia will only issue a child support assessment if you can prove the paying parent is the child’s biological or adoptive parent.

To do this you may need to have DNA testing. You may also need to take court action.

Learn more about proof of parentage

Overseas collection and payments to other countries

You can get child support (and other payments) from a parent living overseas, depending on where they live.

The Australian Government has agreements with many countries for collecting and enforcing payments for child maintenance, child support and spousal maintenance. These are called reciprocating countries or reciprocating jurisdictions.

When the receiving parent lives overseas

If the receiving parent and children live in a reciprocating country and they are eligible for child support payments (according to Australian laws), then you may have to pay child support.

The receiving parent will need to apply to the relevant child support agency in the country where they live. That agency will send a request to Services Australia to collect child support payments from you.

If you’ve got a child support assessment, court order or child maintenance order from an overseas country that has an agreement with Australia, Services Australia can be asked to collect the child support from you.

When the paying parent lives overseas

If the paying parent is living in a country without an agreement with Australia, it may be difficult to get any child support or child maintenance. In most cases, Australian maintenance orders and assessments will have no force in these countries and there will be no government support to help you get payments.

Some countries only accept court orders for child support or child maintenance but countries such as New Zealand, England and the United States will accept child support assessments made by Services Australia (Child Support).

Services Australia can tell you if you need a court order or an assessment, but they can’t help you get a court order. Get legal advice.

When you’ve got a court order, lodge it with Services Australia.

When Services Australia has accepted your court order or application for child support assessment, they’ll liaise with the relevant agency in that country who will be responsible for collecting payments and sending them to Australia.

This is a complex area of law and you should contact Services Australia or get legal advice.

How to get legal advice

We don’t provide representation or help with preparing court documents.

We can give legal advice about collecting and enforcing child support payments.

Contact us

Other places to get legal advice:

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Related information

Disclaimer: This content is for general purposes only and not legal advice. If you have a legal problem, please contact us or speak to a lawyer. View our full disclaimer.

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