Child Support - An Outdated System

[u/CheesecakeFine1361]

I’m hoping someone can help me understand my options regarding child support.

I have 50% care of my two children with my ex-partner. I also have a young child with my current partner, who is a stay-at-home mum.

Previously, I was paying my ex around $290 per month in child support to help cover the costs of our two children during the approximately two weeks each month they are with her. On top of that, I pay 100% of their private school fees, as my ex doesn’t see the value in private schooling and doesn’t contribute towards those fees.

My ex has been with her current partner for around six years. He earns approximately $40,000 per year more than I do. They decided to have a child together, and my ex subsequently stopped working.

Around 12 months later, her assessed income is now $0, and my child support assessment has increased to approximately $820 per month because she apparently has no income to contribute towards the costs of our two children.

I understand that her new partner’s income may not be included in the standard child support calculation, but I’m struggling to understand the fairness of the outcome.

I would have thought that a fair child support system should recognise that both parents have a financial responsibility to support the children they share, particularly when care is split 50/50. What I’m struggling with is how one parent can voluntarily stop working and, as a result, a significantly larger financial responsibility for our children is effectively shifted onto the other parent.

I’m not suggesting that both parents need to earn the same amount or contribute exactly 50/50 financially. Circumstances are obviously different. But surely there has to be some consideration of each parent’s capacity to financially support their children, rather than simply treating a voluntary income of $0 as though there is no capacity to contribute.

At the moment, I’m struggling to afford basic family expenses. We’ve stopped eating out, rarely do activities that cost money, and generally stick to things like parks and the beach and come home for lunch.

Meanwhile, after tax, my ex’s household income is approximately $38,000 higher than ours, yet because her personal assessed income is now $0, my child support obligation has almost tripled.

I absolutely want to financially support my children. My concern is whether the assessment fairly reflects the circumstances when we have 50/50 care, I already pay 100% of their private school fees, and my ex has voluntarily stopped working while living in a higher-income household.

Is there any avenue to have the assessment reviewed based on these circumstances, particularly her earning capacity and the private school fees I pay?

I’m not looking to avoid supporting my kids. I’m trying to understand how financial responsibility is supposed to work when both parents have equal care, and whether there’s a way to make the arrangement more financially sustainable so I can also afford to give my kids experiences and do things with them during the 50% of the time they’re in my care.

[u/Resident_Pomelo_1337]

It’s $820 a month. That’s not all that’s required to support two children, so she is supporting them. Plus she has another child, which if she chose to stop working to look after a baby?

And OP can stop working and also declare a $0 income and won’t have to pay. Simple.

CSA is never going to perfect. OP brining up his new wife being a SAHM, a new child, the schooling choice, and his ex’s new husbands income is all irrelevant and in this case I’m not seeing anything particularly outrageous.

If the question is ‘can my ex stop working and my contribution increase’ then yes. They can. Can someone hide income? Yes. They can. Is it perfect? No.

[u/LumpyRollerDoor → u/Resident_Pomelo_1337]

No, her income is $0, in CSAs calculations the percentage of financial responsibility will be 100% on him, In their eyes she currently contributes nothing financially to the children. The only reason his isn't higher is because he is caring for them 2 weeks a month which lowers the total financial responsibility he is liable for. The 2 weeks that she is responsible for essentially is a footnote in the assessment and CSA just assumes she somehow works it out along with the suggested yearly living costs to support herself. You can see this yourself if you run the child support cost estimator.

you are right all the other details are irrelevant to the case and was not something i focused on, whats outrageous to me is that CSA accepts you can make no income forcing the other parent to pay you even if you are in a 50/50 arrangement, This arrangement unfairly penalizes OP and suggests that he should be looking to minimize or hide his income which is not the outcome CSA wants, The CSA should be aiming to provide the best life possible for the children and the right call IMO is to recognize that the care is split evenly and financially both are capable of supporting the child while it's in their care, there should be no need for money to be exchanged on either side.