My family is separating — what now?
- Emotional support
-
Family violence support
- Are your children at risk?
- Child abuse
- Family violence orders
- Handing over children where there's potential for conflict or violence
- Planning ahead
- Support for children
- Support for me
- What the police can do
- What to do if you or your children are in danger
- What happens if you leave the family home
- What to do if you suspect child abuse
- Financial support
- Legal support
How Child Support Is Calculated
The Child Support Agency will make an assessment for your child support based on a legislative formula. Every family is unique and the child support formula is flexible and takes into account many different family circumstances.
The key principles of the child support formula are:
- the costs of raising children based on independent research,
- both parents incomes are taken into account and considered equally,
- the same self support amount is deducted from each parent’s income before child support is worked out,
- the level of care each parent provides and the age of the children are taken into account, and
- first and subsequent families are treated in a similar way.
Resources
- The child support estimator calculates an estimate of your child support and family assistance payments.
- Care estimator allows you to estimate the care percentage to be used in calculating child support payments.
- Earning extra income after separation can be excluded from your child support assessment.