United Future

Peter,
My warmest congratulations for your contribution as Revenue Minister to the Budget 2011. I believe many do not understand the gravity of our timeline, in that we are going through an extremely unpleasant time economically. Household budgets like mine (Invalids Benefit) shows this to be true. I am finally believing in my country. i am finally understanding that fiscal irresponsibility is no longer appropriate in a global economy in-which we are trying to gain a paddock for ourselves.

Again, my warmest congratulations

What is happening to the Child Support Review that was started last year and issued by Peter Dunne in Feb 2011 for an update in March 2011. Has it now been pushed aside and forgotten?

Yes I would also like to know what is happening with the Child Support Review. It was headline news for awhile there until the ChCh earthquake.

Time drags on for those non custodial parents that are being rorted by the current system and a steady flow of disgruntled ncp's still continue to leave this country instead of having their nett pay raped and pillaged by an antequated and unfair system.

When are the staff at child support going to stop hounding ncp's whose child support is merely administered by the IRD? The cp does not receive any form of assistance from the Govt and the amount of time, money and resourses that I have seen spent on posting out letter after letter. Why do the c/s staff not use their time chasing down the ncp's where the cp is receiving benefits instead of hounding those that are already making their payments, albiet at a grossly inflated amount set either by a Review Officer or by using the current one sided calculator on the website?

When will some sense of fairness prevail so that these ncp's have the disposable income to spend it freely on their children?

Hello everybody,

My apologies for the delayed response.

Within the next few weeks, I will be releasing a summary of all the submissions we received on the review, upon which I will be basing my policy proposals for Cabinet to consider in the next couple of months. I still intend and expect to have legislation in Parliament before the General Election.

Thanks

Peter

Toni Field , great post .please contact me at we have some common data that we could share with you.

Hi Peter,

I am pleased to hear that you still have the ball rolling on this, but time marches on for those that are affected by it and still their bank accounts continued to be drained as a result of ridiculous policies implemented 2 decades ago.

I do have concerns about the submissions, are they based on the yes/no questionaire that was available online to complete, because if they are then they won't be worth the effort.

What you need is submissions from real people and real life stories about how their lives are affected by this isssue, those that are left here to tell their stories that is.

As for waiting for the general election, things will never change if Labour have a say, their socialist ideas will have us taken back to the dark ages and this country will be left with solo mums, sickness beneficiaries and the unemployed. Who will support the children left behind then?

I think my husband will be better off on the sickness benefit as I am sure he has a touch of tennis elbow that prevents him from swinging a hammer. But that won't affect his child support payments as the custodial parent does not receive a benefit and the IRD only administer his payments. You know, you collect interest on the money he sends by the 20th and then you distribute it to the custodial parent on the 5th - 10th of the following month.

Why are we not taking into account some of the guidelines that Australia use? It seems that the Review Officers here in NZ in their Admin Review determinations, are very liberal in using examples of Australian Court cases for child support liability when in fact the criteria for child support liability to the non custodial parent is far fairer and way more up to date there than what we have here.

To those that read this and do not understand the current system, child support liability in NZ is based SOLELY on the income of the non custodial parent. Say he earns $100,000 pa, a living allowance is then deducted from this amount (usually equivalent to the dole, married approx $19,000) that gives a total of $81,000. If you have 1 child your liability is 18% of that figure, so $14,580 year is paid to the custodial parent out of your nett income. 2 children 24% $19,440.

If the custodial parent has remarried and is being supported by another partner or even if they earn more than you in their job, it doesn't matter, their income, assets or living circumstances are NOT TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION when determining how much your share of the child support should be.

If the child support collected is then used to pay out a govt benefit to the cp, then that is acceptable under most circumstances, but certainly not when the cp's own situation is that they are financially secure and of independent means. There must also be an upper limit on how much is required to keep the child/children. How many 1 - 10 year olds require $400 week of a fathers share to keep them fed, housed and clothed? If a limit can be set on Working For Families that is relevant to the age of the child/children, why does the same not apply to the child support? At times the custodial parent also receives WWF tax credits, thereby increasing their weekly "child support" income by up to another $150 week.

I know of a cp that reduced her mortgage by $13,000 year for 4 years, the exact amount paid to her each year in child support payments. Did this benefit the children or her? She owns her own business and her and the children live in a beautiful home. The ncp was left with $500 week to live on after tax and child support were deducted.

It's got to be made fairer and sooner rather than later. As it is it will take years to re educate the staff at the IRD child support office as I am sure that most of them have been indoctrinated into believing that all ncp's (mainly men) must be financially and emotionally castrated so they never go out and procreate again.

Hi Peter
I've seen quite a few people making comments about child support and it worries me that these comments are quite one sided.
People say they are paying too high amounts of child support but remember that child support in New Zealand is only calculated up to 100,000 a year meaning that a millionaire pays the same amount of child support as someone earning 100,000 a year. There are plenty of non custodial parents that are paying far less child support than people overseas in countries that don't have limits like this eg the U.S.
"As for waiting for the general election, things will never change if Labour have a say, their socialist ideas will have us taken back to the dark ages and this country will be left with solo mums, sickness beneficiaries and the unemployed. Who will support the children left behind then?" said Toni Field. Well I would argue that if you are opposed to single mothers being on benefits then you should be more pro active in making people support their own kids this means deadbeat dads must pay to support the kids they fathered.
I'm 20 now but my parents separated when I was younger and I remember what it was like hearing them fight over money - even the amount of distance they drove to meet each other when us kids were going to Dad's for the weekend had to be exactly even. My father is a specialist doctor yet he paid a lower level of child support because he owned his own business and could hide what he earnt through tax right offs. He also refused to ever buy me clothes or any extras when I was at his house because this he believed this was covered by child support (despite the fact that Mum earnt a whole lot less than him). When I started Uni and began working part time, he called up IRD regularly trying to get out of paying child support based on the fact that I was now working. This despite the fact that I was still living with Mum and she is supporting me through Uni. A few of my friends have also been in situations where their fathers wanted nothing to do with them after they remarried and had kids with their second wives.
My point is just that that there are heaps more situations going on than the people that have commented above me have stated so please don't make life harder for custodial parents. They are the ones kids often rely on the most.
Regards,
Laura

If parents have custody remarried, and be support another partner or, even if they earn more than you in their work, it doesn't matter, their income and asset and living environment don't consider determine the share of child support should be.
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