in this guide
A change of care arrangements may affect the child support you pay or receive from the other parent.
Delays in telling us about a care change can affect your child support assessment. If you are telling us about a change of care which happened more than 28 days ago, any of the following may happen:
- your level of care may only apply from the date you tell us
- you may get a child support debt or overpayment
- your assessment may be suspended or ended.
The screenshots in this guide are from a computer. The page layout will look different if you’re using a mobile device.
Step 1: get started
Sign into myGov or the myGov app and select Child Support.
From the menu, select Manage circumstances then Advise a change of care.
Read the information on the Advise a change of care page to help you complete your update, then select Begin.
Step 2: advise change of care
On the Select your case page, select the case for a child or children you want to update care arrangements for. You’ll need to complete details for children of different cases separately. If you only have one case, we’ll pre-select it for you.
Select Next to continue.
On the Select children page, choose the child or children whose care has changed.
If you only have one child, we’ll pre-select them for you.
Select Next to continue.
We’ll ask if you’ve told Centrelink about the care change.
If you select Yes:
- we’ll ask when you told Centrelink
- let you know we’ll need to wait for their decision. You can continue, but information provided won’t be updated until a decision by Centrelink has been made.
In this example, we’ll select No followed by Next.
Tell us the date the care arrangement changed. Select the calendar icon. You can also enter the date manually as DD/MM/YYYY. Select Next.
On the Circumstances of the care change page, tell us why the care changed then select Next.
Choose how you want to tell us about the care level as either:
Number of nights
Select Number of nights to make changes to your care arrangements.
Use the drop down menu to select the Frequency from the list. Enter the amount of Nights of care.
We’ll display a summary of the details you’ve given us. If the information is correct, select Next and go to step 3.
Percentage of time
Select Percentage of time to make changes to your care arrangements.
Enter the percentage of care you provide.
We’ll display a summary of the details you’ve given us. If the information is correct, select Next and go to step 3.
Step 3: care arrangements
If the new care level doesn’t change your child support assessment, we’ll let you know. You can continue, but we may not update your care details.
Select either:
- Next to continue
- Cancel if you no longer want to continue.
On the Care arrangement page, we’ll ask you if the other party provides the remaining care.
If you select:
- No, we’ll ask you to provide more details about the care. When you’ve provided the details, select Next to continue to the next page.
- Yes then Next, you’ll continue to the next page.
On the Written care arrangements page, we’ll ask you if there are any written care arrangements.
If you select:
- Yes, we’ll ask you to provide more details about the written care arrangement. When you’ve provided the details, select Next to continue to the next page.
- No then Next, you’ll continue to the next page.
On the Agreement to change of care page, we’ll ask you if the other party will agree to the details you’ve provided about the care arrangement.
If you select:
- No, we’ll ask you what the other party is unlikely to agree with. When you’ve provided a response, select Next to continue to the next page.
- Yes then Next, you’ll continue to the next page.
Step 4: review and submit
We’ll display a summary of the details you’ve given us. Review the details you’ve provided, and if you need to change your details, select Edit for the relevant section.
Select:
- Next to continue
- Save and exit to save your details and come back later
- Cancel if you no longer want to advise of a care change.
Read the information on the Submit change of care page. If you understand and agree with the declaration, select I have read, understood and accept the declaration. Then select Submit.
Step 5: receipt
We’ll give you a receipt to confirm your update. Make a note of the Receipt ID for your records.
We’ll review the information you’ve provided and if we need more information or evidence, we will contact you.
You can provide evidence to support your change of care by selecting Upload documents. Find out more about how to upload your Child Support documents online.
Select from the following:
- Save receipt to keep a PDF copy of your receipt
- Back to Advise a change of care to advise of another change of care
- Return Home to go back to your online account homepage.
Step 6: sign out
From your homepage you can complete other transactions or select Return to myGov to go back to your myGov account.
For your privacy and security, sign out when you’ve finished using your myGov account.
We have other guides to help you. Read about help for myGov, online accounts and mobile apps.