Your legal obligation as an employer of a Child Support customer
As an employer / contractor of one of our Child Support customers, you have a number of obligations under Child Support legislation:
- you must advise your employee / contractor, in writing, how much Child Support has been deducted each pay period (for example, on their pay slip)
- you are required to keep appropriate records of the Child Support you deduct and send to us
- you are required to respect your employee's / contractor’s privacy—you cannot tell anyone (other than the employee / contractor in question) you deduct Child Support from their pay. We will not discuss your employee's personal affairs with you
- it is illegal to discriminate against any employee / contractor or potential employee / contractor because of their Child Support responsibilities. Discrimination includes charging employees / contractors a fee for making Child Support deductions under a legal obligation
- you cannot make a deduction of Child Support that leaves an employee / contractor with a net pay (after tax and Child Support deductions) of less than the Protected Earnings Amount (PEA), unless deductions are made under a Section 72A notice
- you must make sure you deduct the right amount. We will tell you what the right amount is. You cannot change this even if your employee / contractor, their solicitor or anyone else asks you, and
- payments to us are due no later than the seventh day of the month following deductions. If you pay late, then the money will be late getting to the other parent and your employee’s / contractor’s children.
If you do not meet your obligations, the law imposes penalties.
Recent changes to the legislation make it easier to prosecute employers who fail to deduct or send us Child Support payments on behalf of their employees / contractors.
If you are late making payments to us, you may incur a late payment penalty. We may cancel these penalties in certain circumstances, for example, if the delay was beyond your control.
If we do not cancel a penalty, you can object to that decision. Contact us on 131 272 for more information.
If you do not make deductions when you are required to, or make deductions and do not pay them to us, you may be required by a court to make those payments to us as well as pay a fine and legal costs.