Child Support Payments in Australia

You’ve separated, and one question is unanswered: how much is this going to cost me, or how much will I actually get?

Let me give you a straight answer. There’s no flat rate for child support in Australia, it’s a very complex system that most people can’t get their head around. The figure relies on a few factors; both of your assessable taxable incomes after a self-support amount is deducted, and how the care of the children is split. Your children’s ages also play a part, and rates are adjusted for families of more than one child, and also assessed a little differently again if you have children from multiple relationships. Despite how very complicated it is, you’re not flying completely blind.

Below is the ballpark, then I’ll show you exactly how the number is worked out, so you can see where you’re likely to land and what moves it up or down.

The moment your separation is real, child support becomes one of the first money questions to sort out. Whether you handle it between yourselves or bring in child support lawyers, the starting point is the same: the amount is set by a formula, not by who argues hardest.

How much will you pay or receive?

Here is the honest position first. The only accurate figure is the one a Services Australia assessment gives you. Everything in the table below is indicative, a rough guide to get you oriented, not a quote you can rely on.

The floor is real and worth knowing. For child support periods starting on or after 1 January 2026, the minimum annual rate is $551, and the fixed annual rate is $1,825 per child. Above that, the number climbs with the income gap between you.

On duration: payments generally run until the child turns 18. More on stretching that out, and the rare cases where support continues into adulthood, near the end.

What drives the amount up or down

Six things move the figure. Once you can see them, the whole thing stops feeling like a black box.

• The income gap. The wider the gap between what the two of you earn, the more the higher earner pays. Close the gap and the transfer shrinks.
• The care split. More nights of care lowers what you pay. Care is counted in nights over the year, then converted into a percentage.
• The children’s ages. Teenagers cost more. The tables use a higher rate for children aged 13 and over than for those 12 and under.
• The number of children. More children, higher assessed cost.
• The self-support amount. Each parent gets to set aside a base amount for their own living costs before any child support is worked out. For 2026 that amount is $31,046.
• A second family. Other dependent children you’re supporting are factored in.

Here’s where a lot of people get caught out. Fifty-fifty care does not automatically mean nobody pays. If your incomes are different, the higher earner usually still pays something, because the formula looks at income and care together, not care alone.

How child support is actually worked out

This all runs under the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989, and Services Australia applies it through an eight-step formula. In plain English, here are the steps.

1. Work out each parent’s adjusted taxable income.
2. Take the self-support amount ($31,046 for 2026) off each income. What’s left is each parent’s child support income.
3. Add both child support incomes together for the combined figure.
4. Work out each parent’s share of that combined income. That’s your income percentage.
5. Count each parent’s nights of care over the year, turn that into a care percentage, then convert it to a cost percentage.
6. Subtract your cost percentage from your income percentage. A positive result means you pay. A negative result means you receive.
7. Use the costs of the children tables to work out the total cost of the child, based on combined income and the children’s ages.
8. The paying parent pays their positive percentage of that cost. That’s the annual amount.

The tables step up with income, across several income bands, with the cost capped once combined income passes the top band. The percentage applied is higher for children aged 13 and over than for those 12 and under, and rises with the number of children. One thing most people miss: the cost of the child is calculated net of Family Tax Benefit.

Let me walk one through so the steps feel real.

Say you earn $95,000 and your ex earns $55,000, you have one child under 13, and the child lives mainly with your ex while you have them about four nights a fortnight.

• Take the self-support amount off each income. Your child support income is about $63,954, your ex’s about $23,954.
• Combined, that’s about $87,908. Your share is roughly 73 per cent, your ex’s roughly 27 per cent.
• Four nights a fortnight is about 29 per cent of nights. The tables treat 14 to 34 per cent as regular care and convert it to a 24 per cent cost percentage.
• Subtract your cost percentage from your income percentage: 73 minus 24 leaves you with a positive 49 per cent. So you’re the paying parent.
• The tables set the total cost of the child from your combined income and the child’s age. You pay your 49 per cent share of it.

On figures like these you’d be looking at something in the low-to-mid hundreds a week.

How to set up child support

Child support is run by Services Australia (Child Support), the government body that assesses and, where needed, collects it. You’ll still see older references floating around to the Department of Human Services and the Child Support Agency. Treat those as history: DHS was renamed Services Australia on 1 February 2020, and the standalone Child Support Agency was folded in over a decade ago.

There are three real pathways, and you can apply for an assessment whichever way you go.

• Self-management. You get an assessment for the amount, then you and the other parent handle the payments directly between yourselves.
• Private Collect. Services Australia works out the amount, and you arrange payment privately.
• Child Support Collect. Services Australia works out the amount and collects it from the paying parent for you.

How and when payments are made. Once an arrangement is running, payments are usually made weekly, fortnightly or monthly, whatever suits the two of you or the collection method. If Services Australia is collecting, the timing follows its monthly cycle. The practical point: pick a rhythm and keep it consistent, because gaps are what create debts and arguments later.

Can you make your own agreement?

You don’t have to run everything through the agency. Parents can make a private child support agreement instead, and there are two kinds.

A limited agreement can be ended after three years, so it suits arrangements you expect to revisit. A binding agreement is firmer and needs both of you to get independent legal advice before you sign, which is the trade-off for the certainty it gives.

The part I like about private agreements is the flexibility. You can get creative with how support is paid. Instead of a straight cash transfer, you might agree that one parent covers the school fees, or the rent, or another fixed cost. For a lot of parents that’s cleaner, more private, and easier to live with than money changing hands every fortnight.

Can you be forced to pay child support?

Here’s the question the calculators never answer. Can you actually be forced to pay, and can you get out of it? The short answer is yes, you can be made to pay, and no, you generally can’t get out of it. Let me tell you about a matter that made that crystal clear.

A man had paid someone for some intimacy, and two months later she messaged him and told him that she was pregnant. He panicked. He already had a wife and kid, and his first question was: how do I keep this a secret and get out of paying? The truth is, you can’t. If you’re the biological father, you have a legal obligation to support the child.

The lesson is blunt. Child support follows biological parentage. It doesn’t turn on whether the pregnancy was planned, or whether you’re still in the child’s life. If you’re a parent, the obligation is yours, and no amount of wishing it away changes that.

What child support covers (and what it doesn’t)

Child support is a contribution to the everyday cost of raising a child: housing, food, clothing, schooling and medical costs. That’s the point of it.

What it isn’t is an itemised expense claim. You don’t submit receipts and you don’t get to direct how every dollar is spent. It’s a general contribution to the child’s costs, not a line-by-line reimbursement, and that catches some parents off guard.

Child support and Family Tax Benefit

Child support and Family Tax Benefit are linked. The amount of child support you’re assessed to receive can reduce your Family Tax Benefit Part A, because it counts under the maintenance income test.

The collection method you choose affects how that’s counted, so it’s worth checking your Part A position before you settle on Private Collect versus Child Support Collect. A quick call to Services Australia before you decide can save a nasty surprise at reconciliation time.

Worth flagging: child support sits alongside a property settlement, not inside it. They’re worked out separately, so sorting one out doesn’t settle the other.

What happens if payments aren’t made

If a paying parent falls behind, the receiving parent isn’t left to chase it alone. Under the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988, Services Australia can move the arrangement to Child Support Collect and use its collection and recovery powers to pursue what’s owed.

So if you’re the parent receiving support, there’s a backstop. And if you’re the parent paying, the honest word of caution is this: arrears don’t quietly disappear. They build, and the agency can act on them. Sort a shortfall early rather than letting it snowball.

How long do you pay child support?

Child support generally stops when the child turns 18.

There’s an exception worth knowing. If your child turns 18 while they’re still in secondary school, you can apply, while they’re 17, to have support continue to the end of that school year. Miss that window and it’s harder to fix afterwards, so mark it.

Beyond 18, a separate avenue called adult child maintenance can apply in limited cases, usually where the young person has a disability or is in tertiary study. That’s a court-based process, not part of the standard assessment. Services Australia sets out what happens when your child turns 18. And if your circumstances are unusual, there’s a change of assessment process, but that’s a topic of its own.

Where to from here

This whole scheme runs Australia-wide, so wherever you are, the formula is the same.

If you’re still not sure where you’ll land, or the other parent is making it hard, that’s worth a conversation. Me and my team sort out child support arrangements every week, from a quick sanity-check on the numbers to a binding agreement that actually holds. No pressure, no judgment, just a clear read on where you stand. Book a free discovery call on 1300 614 732, or talk to our child support lawyers about your situation.