Ngā whakatau mai i ngā arotake tautoko tamaiti Decisions from child support reviews

Here's how decisions are made for child support reviews, and what to do if you disagree with the decision.

About reviews

At the hearing

At the review hearing, each person involved can share their point of view and any evidence they have to support it. This can be the person who applied for the review, or anyone else affected by it – the paying (liable) parent, receiving carer or non-parent carer.

Each person has a separate hearing, so the other parent will not be there when you share your information. However, they can see written copies of your evidence before the hearing and when a decision is made.

After the hearing

After the hearing, the review officer considers all the information, as well as any relevant information we already hold. They look at how the child support assessment affects:

• the child
• you
• the other people involved.

The review officer recommends a course of action – to change the assessment or not. Then our technical specialists sign it off, and it becomes a legal document called a Notice of Determination.

There is no guarantee the assessment will be changed.

Finalising decisions

We usually finalise the decision within 3 weeks of the hearing and send everyone involved a written copy. The review officer must provide reasons for their recommendation.

Any information given to the review officer may also be in the decision, including any information:

• given by the other person or people involved
• that we already held.

Opposite outcomes

When you apply for a review, the review officer may consider more than just the grounds or reasons you gave in your application. If they find there are other circumstances that should be considered, they may make a decision that has the opposite effect of what you were hoping for.

We call this a 'contrary decision'.

Keep this in mind when you’re thinking about applying for a review under one ground.

For example, if you’re a paying parent and it costs you extra to cover your dependent child's special needs. You could apply for these extra costs to be taken into account when your child support payments are worked out. But if the review officer sees that you’ve also recently had a large pay rise, you may find your child support payments go up overall.

Or, if you’re the receiving carer and you apply for the paying parent’s pay rise to be included in the assessment. But you have also had a large pay rise. If the child lives with each parent some of the time (there is recognised care), then you might end up paying the other parent.

When more than 1 person applies

The other people involved can apply for a review at the same time as they respond to the original application. We call this a 'cross-application', and you’ll have the chance to respond to it.

If you disagree with a review decision

Review decisions are final - we cannot change them once the hearings are over and decision letters have been sent to everyone involved in the review.

The only way to overturn the review decision is through the Family Court.

However, if you disagree with the review decision, you have the following options depending on your situation.

Apply for a new review

You can apply for a new review if there is a new ground or matter the review officer did not consider, or if your circumstances changed since the last review. While the new review may change your assessment, it will not overturn the previous review decision.

Apply for a departure order in the Family Court

You can apply to the Family Court for a departure order if any of these apply.

• We did not accept your review application because you did not meet the requirements.
• You applied for the review and disagree with the decision.
• You were involved in the review and the review officer decided the matter was 'too complex'.

Appeal the decision in the Family Court within 2 months

If you did not apply for the review and only responded to it, you can appeal the decision in the Family Court. The Court will then hear the original case.

Appeals normally need to be lodged with the Family Court within 2 months.

For more information about how to apply for a departure order or appeal a decision, read our guide Helping you to understand child support and the Family Court - IR174.

Appeal an Inland Revenue decision - departure orders and appeals (justice.govt.nz)