Some parents could be owed thousand of dollars in unpaid child support from their former partner. (Source: Services Australia\/Getty) <\/p>\n
Some Australian parents could be owed as much as $10,000 the Commonwealth Ombudsman has found, in a report asserting that a government department used a loophole to not facilitate child support payments<\/a> as it should have.<\/p>\n According to the watchdog, Services Australia knew for six years the practice did not comply with the law but the department stuck to its guns due to an internal and long standing principle.<\/p>\n The issues stems from an apparent contradiction in the way complex legislation governing parent separations was originally written and Services Australia’s policy of not facilitating child support payments between parents, to a parent who has less than 35 per cent of the care duties.<\/p>\n RELATED<\/p>\n But that policy doesn’t match up with current laws, which could create a situation where a parent who doesn’t care for their children at all could still be owed child support from their former partner.<\/p>\n Services Australia argued the scenario is “unfair and nonsensical”, and had chosen to ignore that part of the legislation to ensure parents were treated fairly.<\/p>\n But Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson asserted in the title of the report<\/a> that “following the law is not optional”.<\/p>\n He said the agency should’ve raised the issue straight away, and either asked the government to change the law, or gotten advice that it needed to enforce the law as written, even if it didn’t agree with how it worked.<\/p>\n While the precise number of families impacted is not clear, Anderson said he’d been told it could be more than 16,000 people, with some parents owed as much as $10,000, meaning their former partner would have an equivalent debt.<\/p>\n In a statement provided to Yahoo Finance, Services Australia General Manager Hank Jongen said the agency’s priority has been to make sure the child support program operates in the best interests of children.<\/p>\n “We thank the Commonwealth Ombudsman for his thorough investigation into this important issue,” he said.<\/p>\n “We agree that following the law is important and that progress to resolve the legislative issue should\u2019ve been quicker and addressed more urgently.<\/p>\n “Services Australia takes the Ombudsman’s recommendations extremely seriously, and we’re working to implement them as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n Services Australia noted a majority of its customers were obviously not impacted, saying the analysis by the ombudsman indicated a majority of those the law applied to were affected between July 2018 and March 2024 and only a few parents were affected between 1 January 2023 and 30 September 2024.<\/p>\n In total, Services Australia, which facilitates child support payments between parents, has 1.1 million such such customers.<\/p>\n The overhaul would be retrospective so parents weren’t unfairly disadvantaged, the department said, suggesting back payments would be instigated.<\/p>\n The full version of the report has been kept secret as it contains material subject to legal privilege. A modified version has been released instead.<\/p>\n with AAP<\/p>\n Get the latest Yahoo Finance news – follow us on Facebook<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson said Service Australia officials sat on their hands, rather than fixing the problem. (Source: AAP) <\/p>\n