27 Nov Check your Child Support Assessment!
Your Child Support Assessment may not always be accurate.
If you have your Child Support assessed through the Child Support Agency, you cannot always rely upon the actual assessment being correct.
We suggest that you carefully review and consider any correspondence that you received from the Child Support Agency/Services Australia in relation to your Child Support Assessment and make sure that the information in your assessment is correct.
You can always put your information in the Child support estimator to see if the amount of assessment is the same as per the online estimator tool. You can find the online estimator tool at the following link: https://processing.csa.gov.au/estimator/About.aspx
Why do I need to check?
On 28 August 2023, the Commonwealth Ombudsman made a statement on their investigation in Services Australia in relation to the poor IT systems that have lead to inaccurate child support assessments.
Their investigation arose from an individual complaint made in 2018. While the individual complaint was resolved, the investigation identified it was a systemic issue, potentially affecting many customers.
As part of the investigation, Services Australia advised that the systems issue was rectified in June 2020 and is no longer affecting child support assessments. In July 2021, however, Services Australia advised the ombudsman that it now intended to remediate only cases which were either active or finalised with arrears (Error Correction Cases) and would not revisit any of the cases which were finalised without arrears (Remaining Cases). The ombudsman’s office were not satisfied with this response and sought further information help them determine the extent of the issue and the action taken to remediate affected cases.
In July 2022, in response to a request from the Ombudsman to provide information, Services Australia advised that the issue affected 47,488 cases – 31,685 of which were Error Correction Cases and 15,803 which were Remaining Cases.
The ombudsman was concerned about the proposed lack of action to address the impacts on the 15,803 Remaining Cases. They were concerned that customers in the ‘Remaining Cases group’ would be unaware that they may have been affected, potentially significantly, and may have rights to seek review. They considered Services Australia’s response to not deal with the remaining cases, was not fair to the parties affected and the options to correct the errors should be considered.
Services Australia’s response to the ombudsman advised that if a customer were to contact them regarding the assessment, it would then be reviewed. The ombudsman’s view in response, was that the if customers were not aware of the error they would unaware they could exercise their rights to question an assessment, creating unfairness between the two groups.
As a result of their investigation, the Ombudsman suggested in November 2022 that Services Australia:
- obtain sufficient data about the nature of the Remaining Cases to inform subsequent decisions made for the remediation of the Remaining Cases;
- obtain external legal advice on the decision not to correct the error in the Remaining Cases;
- consider whether alternative avenues of remediation are available to rectify the errors in the assessments without negatively impacting either party, and
- write to all affected customers in the Remaining Cases cohort to advise them of the error and the agency’s decision not to correct the assessment. The correspondence to the parties should explain that the error was due to a system error caused by Services Australia (not the fault of either party), and include details on review options available to affected customers.
Service Australia’s response
Services Australia obtained more data to better understand the potential impact in individual cases and also obtained external legal advice. Subsequently, Services Australia decided that it would take action on the Remaining Cases, despite their earlier position that they would not.
Remedial action (in writing) has now commenced to notify affected individuals (including those with closed cases) about the potential impact of the error and invite them to contact Services Australia to discuss whether they would like their assessment to be updated. Based on these contacts, Services Australia will decide whether to correct individual cases.
How could this affect you?
You could be affected by the incorrect assessment error, through no fault of your own – in that it could result in one of the parties’ seeking to review the assessment. The ombudsman in the report, seem to suggest that the parties’ should not be negatively impacted by Service Australia error, so this may be worth looking into.
As a result, you could be a person affected. If you are contacted by Services Australia about the error, you should look into it and see how the error affects you.
How do you protect yourself to avoid those issues moving forward? The best way to protect yourself moving forward is to make sure that the letter you receive from the Child Support is accurate and it would be worthwhile, checking your assessment against the online child support estimator tool.
Our Tip is to carefully check your Child Support Letter is accurate and make sure that you are not part of the 15,803 cases that Services Australia need to contact.
If you have any questions about child support matters please contact Solari and Stock on 02 8525 2700 or click here to request an appointment with one of our experienced Family Law Team.
Article written by Nicole Quirk
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash
Further information about this issue is available on Services Australia’s website.