Parents are weaponising Australia’s child support system to commit financial abuse, with Services Australia’s passive oversight further compounding the harm, the Commonwealth Ombudsman has found.
According to the June 3 report, some parents are evading their obligations by deliberately withholding tax returns, misrepresenting earnings, and using threats or coercion to prevent the other parent from seeking help.
The Child Support program, which handles about half of all arrangements, failed to proactively detect or stop such manipulation, the Ombudsman said.“Services Australia is not doing enough to actively deal with the weaponisation of the Child Support program. While its approach is well-intentioned and welfare-focused, it is not helping to get the money owed to parents when their kids need it the most,” quotes the report.
