Common changes you need to tell us about

Make sure your child support payments are right by telling us about certain changes to your living or family situation.

If we find out about a change too late, you could:

• end up with a bill
• miss out on child support you could have had.

Your job or income changes

Tell us if:

• you have a new job and your child support is taken from your wages – we’ll need to contact your new employer and set up your payments
• your income drops by more than 15% from the amount on your assessment notice – you may be able to estimate your income and change your child support amount
• your income goes up when you’ve already estimated it – you might need to change or cancel your estimation to avoid a bill.

About income estimations

Your living arrangements change

Tell us if:

• your overnight care arrangements for your children change, including dependent children 
• your children move house – if they move in to live with you, or move out
• you move in with the other parent you pay or receive child support from because you've got back together.

Your child has a life change

Tell us if your child has any of these changes, as it may mean you cannot get child support for them any longer.

• They are at least 16 and start full-time work of at least 30 hours a week, and they intend to keep working.
• They start getting a benefit or student allowance.
• They get married or move in with someone else who is not paying or receiving child support for them.
• They turn 18 and leave school early, before it finishes for that year – this means a registered high school anywhere in the world, but not university. (If they finish school when it ends, child support continues until 31 December.)
• They stop being a New Zealand citizen or ordinarily resident – that is, another country becomes their main home.

Also tell us if your child stops doing any of these things. If your child support stopped for them because they no longer qualified, and they still meet the requirements, you may be able to apply for child support again.

You get an Unsupported Child’s Benefit

Tell us if you start getting an Unsupported Child’s Benefit (UCB) for any child in your care. If you get a UCB, any child support will go back to the government to pay for the benefit. You’ll be paid any child support that’s leftover.

Your details change

You also need to tell us if:

• your phone number and email address changes
• you want your child support payments to go to a different bank account
• you move house or move overseas.

Help us get your details right

We’ll send you a notice of assessment every year and every time your details are updated, if they affect your child support.

Check the notice and let us know if any of your details are wrong.

Time limit for changes – 4 years

Generally we can only make changes to your child support for the last 4 years. Any further back, we will not make changes unless:

• we find you’re not the child’s parent
• one of the parents has died
• a court has ordered it
• someone has committed fraud or lied to us
• we never sent you a notice when you were first made a paying parent (made liable for child support) because we did not have your address or contact details.

How to contact us

You can tell us about your change:

• in myIR, by filling out a form or sending a secure message
• by phone
• by sending us a letter by post.

Child support - contact us
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