Published: 13 January 2026
Your Family Tax Benefit (FTB) rate may have reduced because of the maintenance action test.
If you or your partner care for a child from a past relationship, you must take reasonable action to get child support.
This is called the Maintenance Action Test.
If you don’t do this, you can only get the base rate of FTB Part A.
If you’re not able to apply for or collect a child support assessment, we can help you. You may be eligible for an exemption.
Learn about why you need to apply for child support when you get FTB Part A.
This information was printed 13 January 2026 from https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/single-parents-and-maintenance-action-test. It may not include all of the relevant information on this topic. Please consider any relevant site notices at https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/site-notices when using this material.