Services Australia lacks the systems and processes to tackle financial abuse being perpetrated in a Child Support system where almost $2 billion is unpaid.
A Commonwealth Ombudsman report found the government agency lacked policies, strategies and training to be able to proactively identify, monitor and respond to cases of financial abuse.
Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson said Services Australia‘s actions were either unfair or unreasonable in addressing widespread manipulation and abuse, which is referred to as the weaponisation of Child Support.
“Former partners weaponise Child Support by deliberately not making payments or not lodging tax returns, lying to reduce their income, lying about care arrangements and being abusive or violent to stop the impacted parent from seeking help,” Mr Anderson said.
“Parents affected by financial abuse through Child Support keep telling us they feel abandoned and let down by Services Australia when they seek help for financial abuse in their Child Support cases.”
He said the report made a number of recommendations, including that Services Australia more effectively enforced payment of Child Support and comprehensively reviewed their processes, and the Government introduced a Bill to amend the law to address limitations that impeded Services Australia enforcement action, better information sharing within Services Australia, and required survivors of abuse to disclose sensitive information to their former partner.
“The legislation needs reform to address systemic problems and help Services Australia ensure children are not deprived of the financial support they need.”
Mr Anderson said in Australia, around 1.1 million children were supported by the Child Support program.
He said the report revealed that as of December 31, last year. there was $1.9 billion in Child Support Collect debt and 153,694 paying parents had a Child Support debt.
Download the report: Weaponising Child Support
