Child support sting

So you can imagine one dad’s fury when he discovered that he’d been paying tens of thousands of dollars for a daughter who wasn’t even his.

Statement from the Department of Human Services

• The Department of Human Services is unable to comment on the details of individual cases.

• When a parent applies for a Child Support assessment, the department needs to be satisfied that the two parties are parents of the child.
• Usually this is satisfied when both parents are named on the child’s birth certificate. The Department can also determine that a person is a parent for child support purposes when:
  • The parents were married when the child was born
  • A court has made a finding that a person is the parent of a child
  • A parent signs a statutory declaration declaring that they are the parent of a child
  • Legal adoption papers nominate a person as the parent of a child
  • The person is a parent of a child under S60H and S60HB of the Family Law Act 1975 (for children conceived using artificial conception procedures or surrogacy arrangements)
  • Cohabitation dates (when the mother and father lived together during the period beginning 44 weeks and ending 20 weeks before the child was born).
• The Department’s current process requires the father to confirm that they were living with the child's mother during the cohabitation period.
• The Department works with both parents during the registration process. If a person believes they have been incorrectly named as a parent of a child, the department will advise that person of the options available to dispute that finding.
• If a person later discovers they are not the parent of the child they can apply for a court order to get their Child Support payments back.
• Parentage overpayments can be registered for collection in the same way as most child support liabilities, including intercepting tax refunds.
• People can also privately commence legal proceedings to recover the monies or pursue private collection repayment arrangements with the other party.