Government sells off homes of parents owing child support
Deadbeat parents who owe child support debts of between $30,000 to $198,000 have had their homes sold-off by federal authorities to recover the cash.
NSW
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Properties belonging to deadbeat parents who don’t pay child support bills are being sold off by the Federal Government to cover the money.
Newly released government documents revealed the forced sale of four properties since 2017 to recover child support debts ranging from $30,000 to $198,000.
Service Australia — formerly the Department of Human Services (DHS) — said it only orders the sale of properties when a “parent has an identified capacity to pay” and is choosing not to, and when all other options to recover the debt have failed.
The most recent properties sold-off belonged to child support dodgers from Victoria and Western Australia.
The Government’s drastic measures to recover outstanding child support money also include draining bank accounts through garnishee notices or taking money from tax refunds or wages before they are deposited in the bank.
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The latest data, released last week, also reveals the state of split families in Australia.
As of June 2018, Australia parents shirking their financial responsibility collectively owed more than $1.63 billion in unpaid child support.
Flaky fathers across Australia owed the most money — more than $1 billion or 70 per cent of the total child support bill — while Australian mums collectively owed about $35 million.
The majority of child support paying parents spend less than one night a fortnight with their child while 150,000 families try to split their children's time equally between mums and dads.
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert said the Government had strong detection and enforcement measures to ensure people pay the child support they owe.
“If people fall behind in their payments, we try to negotiate a payment arrangement that takes their financial situation into account,” he said.
“If a parent is deliberately withholding child support, we have a range of options to recover the outstanding debts. This includes intercepting tax refunds, working with employers to withhold parents’ wages and salaries, to issuing Departure Prohibition Orders (DPOs) and taking litigation action.
Anyone who has a unpaid tax debts, such as a child support debt, can be placed on a DPO which can block a fee-evading parent from fleeing overseas.
As of June there were more than 4600 DPOs in place to recover more than $172 million of child support debt. Despite the fee-recovery powers, a whopping $400 million in child support is currently owed by mums and dads living abroad.
Mr Robert said DPOs were the “most serious end’ of the Government’s integrity measures and used as a last resort.
“Our message for parents who refuse to pay child support is simple — pay what you owe, or you risk being stopped from travelling overseas”.
Originally published as Government sells off homes of parents owing child support