I'm being gypped to the tune of a C-note a week!

I'm a divorced father of three girls and I'm paying out a s***load of my weekly wage in child support. Because I don't have the kids for 30% of the year, I can't get a break on my payments. And that's where I thought it stopped. Until Saturday.

Why? 'Cos on Saturday I was surfing the Child Support Agency website (I'm there at least every couple of weeks) and I came across a link about Family Tax Benefit. So some research and more surfing led me to the Family Assistance Office website where they have a neat little calculator. This is where it starts to get a little unbelievable, so just bear with me.

According to that calculator, using my taxable income, the age and number of kids I have, the amount of time they spend in my care, the amount of child support I pay and the amount of rent that I pay, I'm entitled to over five thousand dollars a year in centrelink payments!!!!

Code:

Payment type                    Per fortnight    Per year Family Tax Benefit Part A       $ 65.66          $1711.85 Family Tax Benefit Part B       $ 11.76          $ 306.60 Large Family Supplement         $  9.80          $ 255.50 Rent Assistance                 $125.30          $3266.75 Total                           $212.52          $5540.70

Geebuz, that's a lot of money that I'm missing out on. But now is when it gets betterer, 'cos I can claim FTB for the last two financial years! I'm only going to bother with the last financial year, but I can get that as a lump sum payment. That's a neat (nearly!) $2000 in my pocket.

But I didn't entirely believe that calculator, so this morning I went down to my local Medicare office and they told me that that looks pretty right, except they were unable to tell me the exact figures until I submit claims. My brain has just turned to mush by this stage, so when I got home, I rang the Family Assistance Office and the nice lady there told me that it's about right.

I'VE BEEN GYPPED!!

A lot of you might already know about these payments. A lot of you might not. I didn't and I'm wishing that there was someone to tell me earlier.

Some helpful links:

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Welcome to the club & some great info there..i too was suprised to get the help, not to mention the rent assistance which makes the difference of being able to do things with the kids and not for special treats

YEP

There seems to be plenty of info given to mothers but fathers have to wade through the bull$hit to get info.

I ask my X for a comparitive share of FTB A&B as I am an invalid pensioner and she moved my daughter 300 k's away, having close to 40 % care I was within my rights.

It went on for a few months of trying to get her to do the right thing by her daughter, then eventually she said " Then claim if you think you can "
When I did she denied knowing the dates my daughter spent with me. Sooooooo as you would expect I had to jave proof of dates.

She had to pay back FTB and I recieved the benefit because I kept a diary and had friends who knew the routine. I had to provide the proof not her.

Seeing as she was living with her new wallet and she suffered no ill efects through her actions she laughed it off.

If I couldn't back up my claim I would have recieved nothing because they believe the mother above all else.

Goood Links and post .

now I have just recently been through the ftb thing and ...

you can claim for the last 2 full financial years prior to and AS WELL as the current financial year to date, yep thats right approx 2 yrs and 7 months as at the end of Jan 07.....fact

I too came accross this myself with the aid of some posters here, no one in the system offered this info to me until I started digging as a result of same.

big windfall to me, approx 10k all up as at dec 2006 and I took the attitude (rightly so) that the x knew but stil did not advise centrelink as to care % (fraud actually), she told them that I have never seen my kids since 3 years ago.

you have to look at it this way, in many (prob most) cases the x will rip you for it and go for max csa as well and ftb can go a fair way towards your csa bill, in some cases it may be more.

you are entitled to it and it is yours, do it all.

Hi,

I am fairly unfamiliar with the Australian tax system (only lived here for 5 years and until now had very simple tax returns) and never claimed FTB. Can I claim that when I pay child support to CSA but do not have possbility to see my daughter, because I do not know where my X is (she's gone into hiding but claims child support).

I am doing my tax return in the moment and needed to know if I can claim anything in there. Alternatively it would be great to find out where I can get information for that.

cheers

Pete

your share of the family tax benefit is normally directly related to the time the children are in your care but in your case she is hiding and i assume you do not see your children.

if the department is not sure of what to do or who they should believe they have the option of calculating your return directly on what time your orders state you should have the children in your care, that is if you have orders.

if no orders exist that give you time with the children and she has dissapeared the the likely outcome is that you will get none, of course this is all simplified but alas, is close to reality.

the other point you may consider is that if she is recieving your csa payments but is in hiding there are ways of finding her and that is through the courts by applying for location orders and if successful she will be easy to find for the authorities because you are paying csa and she has to turn up somewhere to complain she is no longer getting it (little will she know that is the way they find her)

you keep paying, they go looking and as a last resort they will stop paying and she fronts to see what has gone wrong and bingo, they have her and you have the details.

this is again assuming that you have orders to spend time with the children and she has bolted.

so you see there can be a lot to it or it can be easy, all depends if you have orders or not.

another thing and that is if you are behind in your csa payments and you lodge your tax return and are entitled to a refund they will grab your arrears out of that refund before you get anything.

a visit to your local centrelink office will give you all the info straight from the horses mouth, you should go there you may get a nice surprise depending once again if you have orders and if you do, what they contain.

does this help