Making sense of child support.

Child support often sits at the intersection of parenting arrangements, income, benefits and everyday expenses. Small changes in care percentages or earnings can significantly affect the amount payable or received. Our first step is to understand your family situation, current or proposed care arrangements and financial circumstances. We then explain how the Child Support Agency assessment works, including key concepts such as taxable income, percentage of care, self support amounts and multi case situations.

If the standard assessment does not reflect your reality, for example because of private school fees, health needs, travel costs or income patterns, we can advise whether a change of assessment application is appropriate and help you prepare the evidence and submissions. We can also assist with limited and binding child support agreements, which may provide greater certainty or flexibility, and with reviewing older agreements that no longer fit your circumstances. Where there are arrears or non-payment issues, we explain enforcement options through the Agency and, in some cases, the Courts.

Throughout, we focus on child focused, workable arrangements that balance the children’s needs with each parent’s capacity to pay, aiming to reduce disputes and support cooperative co-parenting where possible.

Our goal is to give you clear information and a manageable plan, so child support becomes one part of the picture, not the constant focus of conflict.