I’m really worried I’m going to end up with a debt. My ex has just realised that he and his partner never filled out a birth certificate for their second child (2) just after he was born they had a lot going on medically with their first so I completely understand how that slipped their minds. But I’m stressing that once they do fill it out and child support puts down that he has had another dependent this whole time I’m going to get a debt as he would have payed to much with the amount of children he has to support. Has anybody been in this situation. I want to call child support but I’m not really sure what to say to them
13 Replies
I’d try not to stress. Child support tend not to back date things. So they quite likely won’t reassess his past payments but they may adjust future payments.
If you do end up with a debt they will most likely just let him pay less child support for awhile rather than taking money from you.
How old is the child? They probably already have him on Centrelink records? I didn't need a birth certificate to register my kids for Centrelink. There's a good chance this child is already taken into account. Your assessment should say how many other dependants he has.
It doesn’t it just says the he HAS another dependent. He youngest is nearly 2. They said they filled out all the registration papers in hospital but not the actual birth certificate
Child is probably already on there then. CSA use Centrelink records usually. I needed to provide birth certificates for mine when my ex and I broke up because we were never married and I have a different last name, so they wanted to see his name on the birth certificates.
No child support don’t get stuff from Centrelink, that’s how you end up with debts. I thought the same, but apparently not. Stupid government departments.
You don’t do anything, he is the father and he is responsible for calling child support.
Surely that's his fault for not lodging paperwork. There's deadlines for doing that. I don't think theyllbackdate if he missed it, that's his fault.
Having dependants in his care will barely effect your child support you receive sadly! He'll be lucky to see a $20 a month drop in his payments to you. The most they will back date it is 3 months. its highly unlikely you will be made to pay it back, unless he requests it. It comes off the yearly amount he's expected to pay you.
Why is it sad that this payments won’t drop?
It's not sad, don't have more kids if you can't afford to support them all.
Poster of the " sad" comment here - I say this as a partner of someone who pays child support. When their 2 children became teenagers the amount payable went up an extra $45 a month. Next year when our 2 are teenagers, the payments will reduce by $2 a month!
I'm not saying we can't afford to support all 4 children but the child support system will always be unjust!
Well I do agree with you on that one, it needs a massive overhaul.
When you chose to have your two other children, you knew what your child support payments were, like any other expense, only this one is more important, like your flesh and blood. Like a married couple, deciding if they can afford more, if you can’t take care of the ones you have, don’t have more. Kids don’t cost less when they multiple.