[Australia] Child support changes 'will increase poverty'

from Australia Brodcasting Corporation

The Democrats say planned changes to the Child Support Scheme (CSS) will leave many single mothers already living in poverty worse off.

The Federal Government has accepted most of the recommendations made by a ministerial task force on the CSS.

Payments will be recalculated under a new formula that takes into account both parents' incomes and compliance efforts will be stepped up.

The deputy leader of the Democrats, Andrew Bartlett, says the changes address some of the injustices in the current scheme.

But he says a Senate committee will need to scrutinise the changes.

"In some cases, I don't think there's any doubt that some sole parents - who are the principal carer, who are predominantly are women - will be worse off," he said.

"Certainly we need to look at what that means.

"We also need to look as well at what the totality of support being provided to the child is."

Time penalties

There are also concerns about the requirement for parents to spend certain amounts of time with their children to qualify for benefits.

Sue Price, from Men's Rights Agency, says the Government is giving with one hand and taking with another.

"Under the current scheme, a payer would be paying $84 a week," she said.

"Under the new scheme, a payer would be paying $70 per week but the trouble is the Government is saying they won't split the family tax benefit with people unless they have at least 35 per cent of contact."

Ms Price also says the changes fail to scrutinise the cost of raising a child when parents separate.

"I'm disappointed that we've spent a lot effort and a lot of man hours trying to say to the Government the Child Support Agency is dysfunctional," she said.

Payments crackdown

The changes also include a crackdown on the non-payment of child support, which has the backing of the Queensland Women's Legal Service.

The service's Ann Gummow says a lot of the group's time is spent dealing with overdue payments.

"You know a lot of people just don't get their child support," she said.

"There's been a push over the last few years to take the Child Support Agency out of the equation so it's meant to be a collection of arrangements between the parties themselves, which of course ends up resulting in people not receiving their child support."

"I think it needed a review but they haven't gone far enough and I think they need to listen to some of the people who work at the coal face rather than listen to academics."