Here are some common reasons why you might not have been paid your child support entitlement.
- The payment is not due yet.
- We have not been paid by the paying (liable) parent.
- You’re getting the unsupported child benefit.
- The paying parent has a new job or has moved overseas.
- There’s been a problem processing the payment.
Payment is not due yet
Child support payments are due to you on the 20th of the following month. So, your April payments are due to be paid to you by 23 May.
If there is a reassessment, the paying parent gets an extra 30 days to pay.
Payment cycles and due dates
Check your payments in myIR
We have not been paid
We can only pass on child support once we receive it from the paying parent.
We will follow up any overdue child support for you. If we cannot contact the paying parent, we may collect the child support from:
- their salary or wages
- any benefit or ACC payments
- their bank accounts
- any other money that the paying parent is owed, like a trust account or superannuation pay-out.
If we cannot contact the paying parent or find out where they work or live, we may ask you for information. If you have information that may help us to collect your overdue child support, please contact us.
You’re getting a benefit
You will not get child support payments for a child:
- if you are also getting an unsupported child benefit (UCB) for them
- for any time period before 1 July 2023, if you were getting any kind of sole parent rate of benefit.
If you get a sole parent rate of benefit after 1 July 2023, you should also be paid your child support in full.
The paying parent has a new job
If the paying parent has child support taken from their wages, and they change jobs, there may be a small gap in payments. This can happen even if they tell us about their new job.
However, for privacy reasons we cannot tell you if they have a new job, or even if child support is being taken from their wages. We can only tell you different reasons why a payment may have been missed.
The paying parent is still responsible for making sure they pay their child support in full.
The paying parent is overseas
If the paying parent has moved overseas, we need to know. They are still responsible for paying their child support in full, but if they do not, we may be able to follow up.
If they're living in Australia, we may be able to ask Services Australia to collect the overdue payments on our behalf. If they live in a country that has joined the 2007 Child Support Convention, we may ask that country to collect payments on our behalf.
Processing issues
Occasionally a payment is made but does not process properly. For example:
- the payment has gone to the wrong place, like to the paying parent’s income tax
- the payment did not have the right IRD number and needs to be located and fixed.
See your payments in myIR
You can check your entitlements and upcoming payments online in myIR. It’s quick and easy once you’ve got an account.
Check your payments in myIR
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