On 27 March 2014 the Minister for Social Services asked the
Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs to inquire into and
report on Child Support.
The Committee is to look into:
- the methods used by Child Support to collect payments in arrears and manage overpayments;
- whether the child support system is flexible enough to accommodate the changing circumstances of families;
- the alignment of the child support and family assistance frameworks;
- linkages between Family Court decisions and Child Support's policies and processes; and
- how the scheme could provide better outcomes for high conflict families.
The Committee is to also report on:
- the methodology for calculating payments and the adequacy of current compliance and enforcement powers for the management of child support payments;
- the effectiveness of mediation and counselling arrangements as part of family assistance frameworks; and
- ensuring that children in high conflict families are best provided for under the child support scheme.
The Committee called for submissions - due to be filed by 4
July 2014. And a variety of organisations - including Relationships Australia,
the Law Society of NSW, Victorian Legal Aid, the Law Council of Australia, Dads
in Distress and the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children -
have made public submissions to the Committee.
Additionally, the Committee has created an online
questionnaire for individuals to complete: https://www.research.net/s/CSPquestionnaire. According to the Chair of the Committee, MP
George Christensen "We want to hear from individuals about their
experiences, and that is why we have created a comprehensive online
questionnaire ... This kind of information will be crucial to our understanding
of how the program operates in reality".
The Committee has also been holding hearings in many
Australian cities, including an up-coming one in Newcastle on 21 July 2014. These hearings are
open to the public.
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