The proposed changes would encourage child support to be collected directly from wages more often. About half of child support payment arrangements are made privately, which can be hard to enforce.
The government is also planning to release an online tool to help parents select the most suitable collection method.
The proposed laws would also be more flexible, allowing either parent to switch from private to government collection to recover child support debts.
There’s also funding to crack down on people who repeatedly don’t lodge tax returns to reduce the amount of child support they owe.
When child support is unpaid, delayed, or underpaid, payees (mostly mothers) can lose access to higher government payments or face unexpected debts because government payments are linked to expected child support. Single mothers with young children almost always carry the greatest financial burden of non-payment because they are less likely to be employed than other mothers.
Under the changes, late or unpaid child support is increasingly being framed as financial abuse.
Source: The government is reforming child support. Here’s what’s changing – and what’s been missed