Conference with the CSA and Centrelink on management of care time and income estimates

Conference with the CSA and Centrelink on management of care time and income estimates

By Jim Carter

The LFAA and SPCA met with officers of the CSA and Centrelink at Juliana House on 15 March 2010, to discuss changes recently agreed upon by the Government relating to the measurement of care time and income estimates for child support assessments.

Present at the meeting for the CSA and Centrelink were Alison Essex (Chair), Jennifer Cooke, Andrew Whitecross, and other officers from the CSA and Centrelink.

Alignment of care calculations between the CSA and Centrelink

The new arrangements mean that the calculations used as a basis for payments will in future be the same as between the CSA and Centrelink. Some confusion had been caused by the previous arrangements under which CSA and the Centrelink used different bases. Also, parents tended to inform Centrelink immediately about changes to care arrangements but only pass on information to the CSA much later.

Under the old CSA arrangements, there was required to be a 7% change in the amount of care time before any adjustments to child support amounts could be made. In future, any amount of change in time may be taken into account, but on the basis that the number-of-nights formula is, in the particular instance, inappropriate.

The new formula will be on the basis of the care that a person is likely to be providing for the next 12 months, over the financial year.

Under the new arrangements, under some circumstances daytime care will be considered. There will be reference to the total number of hours of care. An actual time calculation will be made.

Where there is an order by a court and there is no dispute about actual care time, that is the simplest case. Parents will be able to ring up about changes and provide a simple update. Where costs are not changed, the CSA will be able to note changes in care but without any need to adjust money amounts.

Where parents dispute time, there will be reference to actual levels of care. There may be cases where it is not appropriate to apply a court order on time. The principle (according to the CSA) will be that “family payments should follow where the child is”. However, where a court order is not being followed and the aggrieved party is taking action to correct the situation, the court-ordered amount will be taken to be the correct amount for a period of 14 weeks, to allow time for the matter to be sorted out within the court system as necessary.

There will be provision for adjustments to be made in relation to “blocks” of sole child care time care, e.g., where, say, a parent is involved in a temporary assignment overseas. The date of change to arrangements shall be taken to be the date on which the CSA was informed about the change, not the date that the change actually commenced.

As far as the finer details of calculation of care time are concerned, methods of calculation which already well accepted will usually be subsumed into the new arrangements.

There will be review of decisions in the usual way, initiated by the lodgement of an objection. But there will in future only be one decision, covering both the CSA and Centrelink. Parties will be sent a letter setting out the changes being made, and people will be able to ring to ascertain further details if necessary.

The new method of calculation now proposed for the calculation of care time by both CSA and Centrelink is considered to be both superior in terms of equity and easier for parents, and will amount to a streamlining of previous arrangements. It is expected that there will be fewer objections to the SSAT, as a result of the calculations being the same for both the CSA and Centrelink.

Guidelines will be developed and promulgated after legislation is introduced - but not before.

Income estimates

The CSA regularly checks actual income against estimates. Although most parents do not lodge estimates, there are some who do.

Under the existing system, some income estimates are being revised years after the event, with resulting problems. There has been an obligation placed on the Registrar to reconcile income information when that information became available. This has been a very labour-intensive process, especially in cases where an estimate might cover three separate financial years.

Under the new arrangements estimates will be calculated over a financial year and the process will be made more automatic in order to reduce errors.

16 March 2010