United Future

Ryan, I appreciate your message. Frustrated is probably the better word. You may have dectected from my post that I too am more than a little frustrated at the time this whole issue is taking. But it is importasnt, and I intend to continue, no matter how long it takes.

Hi R Dunne
can you explain why currently the child tax is calculated from the gross income instead of nett income as it is in US?

*oops sorry name correction.. P Dunne*

Hi Peter Dunne
one question more for you.
If a father is willing to undertake child care (child lives with him, he pays for all) without tapping into the mother's income for support, why doesn't IRD give him that option to do so or allow him to exercise that option instead forcing him to accept child tax?

PS still waiting for your reply to my previous post...

Mr Dunne and readers

The child support system is hopelessly out of date for the day and age we live in. My case: I have two children with whom I have full 50/50 shared care with the mother. We share extra curriculur expenses equally (medical, school fees, sports etc). I work full time, she works two days a week. Because she has CHOSEN to work two days a week (she has a new partner who supports her) I end up paying her a whole lot of child support each week. Because of the shared expenses and 50/50 care, we both face exactly the same costs associated with the children. So why do I have to give her money? It simply is not fair.

If I was only prepared to have the kids, say, every second weekend, then I would expect to have to compensate her financially for the fact she would be incurring more cost.

There are plenty of parents who have a worse situation than mine. We desperately need an overhaul of the child support system.

I am married to a man who is currently paying child support for his 2 children, mine are adults and long off my hands. Had I known what a rort the child support system was 15 years ago I would have left the childrens father and been far better off financially under the current scheme. My husband also came out of a 16 year marriage with ZERO! Circumstances at the time mean that after 7 years he is still fighting for settlement of relationship property which although went through the Fem Caught was an equally big rort! He had a private arrangement for 5 years and then once the recession hit, being in the reisdential construction industry he told the ex that he had to reduce his payments as he had lost his job. She marched straight to the IRD and it has been administered by them for the past 2 1/2 years. As the CP she has the house, her own business, rental income from the house at Xmas, WFF tax credits and recently a cash business from home. In the Admin Reviews here they quote extracts from Australian child support court cases, but there the CP's assets, financial resourses and earning capacity are all taken into account when determining liability for the NCP. A much fairer system. I agree with Carol whereby she mentioned that it should be up to the parents to sort out the child support and the IRD should only be involved when NO payments are being made. At present, just about to undergo another Admin Review (4 in 2 years, instigated by the CP who thinks that the NCP should be paying more and should be assessed on a single rate instead of a married rate, in other words I should supplement her income with my own) I wish that the IRD would tell the CP to take a hike and to sort it out themselves like 2 mature adults. Sure there are fathers that shelter behind Trusts but unfortunately for the majority of dads their income is totally transparent and they can hide nothing. The unfair living allowance and the high percentage of the tax paid income that MUST be paid is unreasonable and needs adjustment sooner than later. What will it take to get things moving, should we start a petition? I am happy to make my details available to get momentum happening.

I love the fact that nearly all comments on this blog are posted by whinging men.
I am a single mother of two children. My ex husband and his parter have a combined monthly income of $10,000, plus the child support she gets from her ex for her son. Compared to my monthly income of $3,000, seems a little unfair. In addition to this my ex contributes nothing to the cost of the childrens sports, school fees or trips, school uniforms, doctors bills etc. I am also still paying the full mortgage on our family home which is crucifying me. Why shouldn't my ex be responsible for paying me child support???
Instead of looking to make things 'fairer' on the men, the government should be looking more at the current bogus 'shared care' system which only considers nights, not days. Surely days count more than nights as full time workers like myself have to take holiday and sick leave to cover when the children are unwell or on school holidays (approx 14 weeks per year just in holidays) when the other parents gets off scott free - 'shared'? I think not!!

Lucky you Natalie that you have the family home to live in! Lucky you that you have the children with you, ever stop to think what he is missing out on not spending each day with them?
I'm not a whingeing male either just someone that can sit on the fence and see both sides of the story.
As for sick days and holidays have you thought to ask you ex if he could help out with the children, most dads would be only too happy to be asked.
As for the combined income of both of them, it is none of your business what his partner earns and her earning capacity has no bearing on your children. Do you expect her to subsidise you and your children with her income. What about WFF, if you are only earning $3000 month you should be getting this as well.
Sorry but I am sick of whingeing custodial parents that think the ex's new partner should be responsible for the upkeep of the kids. It's bad enough that the IRD can change the NCP's status from married to single to accomodate, which is what happened to us. If my husbands child support payments are short, it is because he is not paying the difference between the married rate he should be on and the single rate the CP suggested to the IRD at an Admin Review that he should be on.

I am a paying parent for a 16 year old child who was wooed by no rules no boundaries to go and live with his Father. He has since been expelled from school is smoking dope and drinking. His Father is making sure he doesnt work because he doesnt want to lose his "cash cow". He receives family support of $190 per week and child support from me of $320 per fortnight. How ridiculous is that? There has to be something done about this. Where is the accountability? My son is the one losing out. He suffers from depression now DUH I wonder why? It is just ridiculous. From what I have read when all this goes though I will actually be paying more!!!!

Natalie, last time I checked child support is to support the children, not to compensate you for lost income. Its incorrect to say your ex does not contribute to school fees, trips, sports etc as this is what child support payments are! Child support isn't designed to meet 100% of the costs of raising children either as they are the responsibility of both parents.

Peter,
Thanks for releasing the discussion document. It was a very interesting read. I for one will certainly be making a submission.
I have to say it raised some very interesting issues and a few that I had not considered myself, overall it was well reasoned and asked some good thought provoking questions.
I realise it's going to be difficult to end up in a situation where you address all issues with the current system, but I'm heartened by the discussion document that there is some good thought going behind this.
If we end up with a modified formulae that takes as many of the issues into account as possible that have been raised you'd have to be happy with the outcome.

I would encourage anyone effected by the issue on both sides of the fence to make submissions. If you don't contribute you certainly aren't in a position to complain if you don't like the outcome!

Hi Ross
Am doing the Australia thing and you still get stung with the deal NZ and Australia have. Bro good for you for sticking it out. I haven't and am lossing my relationship with my daughter. Well what was left of it. I am doing the move to the other side of the planet just to get back on my feet to get a life back due to this system. It was stated to me if I cant pay the monthly bill I had to find someone to cover for me. Has nothing to do with anyone else so I directed my child support bill to c/o Peter Dunn Beehive Wellington. Thanks Pete your a champ of a man.

Hi Peter, Just wondering - Has a new proposal been created yet from the Survey October 2010, has a submission been made to parliment yet? Whats going on with this?.... anything?

What's happening with this? I would also love to know if a submission has been made to parliment too. I am a mother of 2 children, married to a man who has 2 children from his first marriage.

Peter Dunne, my husband is a great father and goes above and beyond for ALL his children - his older children are here with us at least 30% of the year, yet he still pays full child support to his wife. While she is entitled to this calculated amount, it is a huge amount off our monthly income. I think our case is an exception to the norm.