Compare your child support collection options

You can collect your child support in 2 different ways:

• Child Support Collect
• Private Collect.

Your options may be different if you live overseas. Read about child support when parents and children live overseas.

Some separated parents self-manage the finances for their children without our involvement.

The option you choose may change how much Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A you receive. If parents chose to self-manage, they won’t receive more than the base rate of FTB Part A. Learn more about how child support affects FTB Part A payment rates.

If you’re worried about risks to you or your family or if there’s a reason that makes it difficult for you to collect child support, you can:

• call the Centrelink families line and ask to speak to a social worker
• go to a service centre and ask to speak to a social worker.

This includes reasons like financial abuse or family violence.

Child Support Collect

This is where:

• a child support assessment, agreement or court order sets the payment amount
• we help with how and when to pay and manage the payments.

We will do all of the following:

• tell the paying parent how and when to pay
• collect the money from the paying parent
• transfer the money to the receiving parent.

What’s good about it

You don’t have to deal directly with each other about child support, you can talk with us.

We will do all of the following:

• collect payments
• work out your Family Tax Benefit
• keep records of past and due payments.

The paying parent can still make non-agency payments.

Things you should know

We only transfer payments when we receive them from the paying parent.

We have ways to recover overdue child support, but we can’t say how long this will take.

If we change your assessment for a past period and there are amounts owing, we can collect these extra amounts. Find out more about how to manage your assessment.

Who should use it

Use Child Support Collect if:

• you find it hard to talk with each other about child support
• you need help to make sure payments are on time and in full
• you need help to get payments back on track if they fall behind
• the paying parent doesn’t regularly lodge tax returns or estimates their income.

Example if you use Child Support Collect

We used our child support formula to decide that Michael must pay Sharon $350 per month for their children. Michael finds it hard to budget and Sharon finds it hard to keep records of the payments.

To help, we take Michael’s payments out of his pay each fortnight.

Michael’s employer deducts the money and sends it to us each month. We then transfer it to Sharon from the 8th of each month.

Read more about Child Support Collect.

Private Collect

This is where:

• a child support assessment, agreement or court order sets the payment amount
• you and the other parent work out how and when to pay.

What’s good about it

We tell you the child support amount. You agree together on how and when to pay. It doesn’t involve us much. You talk to each other directly.

Without needing to tell us, you can agree on:

• payments in kind, which is something you exchange that is not in the form of money
• payments to someone else, such as school fees, sports fees, mortgage or rent.

Read more about Private Collect.

What you should know

It’s up to you to plan, manage and keep records of the payments.

If we change your assessment for a past period, your FTB payments may be affected. Read about child support and your FTB Part A.

If you change your mind about Private Collect, or it isn’t working out, you can:

• ask us to start collecting your payments for you through Child Support Collect
• get legal advice about getting the other parent to pay what they owe you.

If the paying parent gets behind, we can collect overdue payments going back:

• up to 3 months in normal circumstances
• up to 9 months in exceptional circumstances.

Read more about exceptional circumstances in the Child Support Guide on the Department of Social Services website.

Who should use it

Use Private Collect if you:

• want to be flexible about how to pay
• can talk to each other about money and looking after your children
• need a bit of help from us at first but can work out most things between you
• can rely on payments being on time and in full
• can rely on the paying parent lodging their tax returns on time
• can discuss and agree on how to make up or return payments, if your assessment changes for a past period.

Example if you use Private Collect

We used our child support formula to decide that Toni must pay Charles $100 per week for their child. Toni has set up a regular online banking transfer for the $100 to go straight into Charles’s bank account.

Each bank transfer record says the money is for child support. This makes it easy for both Toni and Charles to check that they’re on track.

Toni only needs to change the transfer amount if the assessment changes.

Read more about Private Collect.

Changes to your circumstances

Tell us straight away about any changes that may affect child support. This will help us make sure your assessment is accurate and change it if it isn’t.

Changing your collection option

You can ask to change your collection option. We can only change it if the receiving parent agrees.

If your Child Support online account is linked to myGov you can ask for a change online.

Sign in to myGov

You can also ask for a change by either:

• filling in a Request to change payment collection method form and send it to us online or by post
• calling us on the Child Support enquiry line.