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Reciprocal Child Support
Agreement with Australia

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Inland Revenue Department

Child Support is administered through the Inland Revenue Department, which has the powers to collect all child support by way of wage deduction.
Because of the Reciprocal Agreement with Australia they also collect child support payments on behalf of Australia.
This system is unworkable due to lack of communication between New Zealand and Australia. Lack of communication with the liable parent. No current information is requested, so they use default figures to calculate payments,which can be the reason for increase in payments.
With Australia always working behind by 28 plus days and New Zealand requiring 21 plus days to action any changes can cause any information being sent out nearly 2 months later
Notice of arrears without any explanation, which is very hard to find out why. One reason for arrears is that the payments have been increased, and by the time notification is sent out and actioned by New Zealand can be up to three months, the second reason is exchange rate fluctuations.
As Australia calculate the payments in Australian Dollars by the time it gets converted to New Zealand Dollars there is an increase of approx. NZ$31.00 on a AU$200.00 pr month   see example
Australia do not send out statements, and New Zealand statements are not up to date, it is very hard to work out where any problems lie.
With all the difficulties in dealing with both these agencies and getting conflicting information and waiting months and months to get problems resolved is why this agreement needs reevaluating.  Our Experience