From July 2023, when a liable parent makes a child support payment, it will be passed on to receiving carers on a sole parent rate of benefit, instead of being used to pay the cost of providing the benefit.
First payments from 22 August
This change is for child support for the month of July 2023 onwards. The first payment to receiving carers will be made on 22 August as child support payments are made the following month, as long as the liable parent makes their payment on time.
The amount of child support you receive depends on your situation. To get an idea of how much you may receive, you can check your expected entitlement amount in myIR. Simply log in to myIR and click on 'View my entitlements’ in the child support – 'Receiving carer' tab. You’ll also find this information on your latest notice of entitlement. We will only be able to make the payments to you if the liable parent makes their payment.
Please note this change only applies to child support for the month of July 2023 onwards. If a payment is made for an earlier missed amount (prior to 1 July 2023) it will not be passed on to the receiving carer on a sole parent rate of benefit.
Check your bank account details are correct
Please check that your bank account details are up to date in myIR, so any payments we pay to you don’t go to the wrong account:
- log in to myIR
- click on the ‘I want to...' tab
- select ‘Manage refund bank accounts'
- if the child support bank account is correct, you don’t need to do anything
- if you’d like to update your account, click ‘Add a new bank account’ and select child support as an account type
- note that when you update your bank account for one tax type, it doesn’t automatically update all your other tax accounts, so you may need to update those separately.
Child support payments will be treated as income
The child support payments you receive will be treated as income when working out other payments that you receive from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). We will tell MSD about the child support payments you receive. If the liable parent misses a payment, no child support information will be passed on to MSD and your benefit won’t be affected.
Child support changes (Work and Income New Zealand)
If you receive Working for Families Tax Credits, in most cases these payments won’t change. However, if receiving child support means your income increases over $42,700, your Working for Families payments may need to be adjusted.
Voluntary agreement
From July, you will also be able to set up a voluntary agreement, if you can agree on the child support amount but would still like us to manage the payments.
More information about child support
Other MSD changes
There is more information about the latest changes and what it means for your MSD payments on the Work and Income New Zealand website.