Fairness is in the eye of the beholder and it's likely not all will be pleased with planned changes to child support payments.
Revenue Minister Peter Dunne yesterday announced a raft of changes to the system, including how payments are calculated, having payments taken directly from parents' pay-packets, and easingup on the penalties for those that default on payments. The number of nights a year used to determine shared care would be reduced from 40 per cent to 28 per cent, and the penalty rules for parents defaulting on payments would be made less punitive so as to not discourage parents from resuming payments.
It is worth noting, as Mr Dunne did, that there have been significant changes to the way families live in the 18 years since the child support system was introduced. By changing the definition of income, altering the shared care thresholds and making deductions from salary or wages compulsory, these changes are designed to rebalance the inequities of the current scheme.
It is hard to remove emotion from any debate which deals with the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens.
Those who stand to lose out or face greater scrutiny of their responsibilities as parents will doubtless argue against the changes. But it is the children who must remain the focus of such policies, and some would argue the changes don't go far enough in ring-fencing payments so they can only be used to the benefit of the child or children.
On first read, the changes appear to make sense and, with 210,00 children covered under the scheme, in which $605 million in payments is outstanding, clearly some change is long overdue. Those announced yesterday should help.
