questions about child support and access

[Emi13]

I don't know if this is the right section, I wasn't sure where to ask, but since it is about my step daughter I thought ppl might relate and have been through something similar to what we are going through. I am wondering if anyone knows the process of organising joint access to a child when both parents live interestate from eachother. Is it possible? Or must the child stay in the one state?

Also, does anyone know if a person is made to backpay in child support , does that mean that the other parent (Who had been receiving benifits from centrelink) will owe centrelink money. eg. if the mother gets $15,000 a year from centrelink but would have only been paid $14,000 if she had been recieving childsupport. And the father is made to pay $2000 backpay. will she owe $1000 to centrelink?
Will a parent get more with childsupport than from centrelink alone?

thanks :)

[share a book]

It's the FTB that's affected by CS, and Rent Assistance, so she wouldn't be getting that much in FTB and RA for one child in a year anyway. Like any overpayment, it needs to be paid back if there is an overpayment that occurs.

As for access, if the parents live interstate then it would make the child's life very difficult to have joint access because the only way to do that is to have the chlid all of the holidays in full with the other parent, and even then it would equate to 13 weeks of the year with the other parent which is 1/4 of the year, not 1/2 the year.

[MamaKoala]

A way that a family in my school did it was that the son would spend 2 years with his father and 2 years with his mother. He would go to the same school's each time he went interstate so it wasn't as disruptive but short of measuring it in years I cannot imagine it being beneficial to a child to spend 50% of their school year in two different schools.

As for C'link. If the person in question was having their benefits reduced based on the CSA assessment, even if CS is in arrears, then it is very unlikely that they will have a debt.

[TurnedBatty]

It can and has been done. The depsartment of education can arrange for the child to be enrolled in two schools t once, though I think it isnt the best idea.

[pegasus]

When we lived in a different state to the step kids, we had the kids for the same numbers of nights, we just had them for blocks of time, rather than weekends.

A lot probably depends on the age of the kids.

As for the money - wouldn't the money she receives in back payments from CS be on next years tax info, therefore affect family tax payments in this financial year rather than creating a debt to CL?

[Emi13]

Thanks everyone. I didn't know it was possible to have a child enrolled in two schools at once, and although it would make things much easier for us to spend time with the child, I can see how it could be difficult for the child. To be honest I think it will all be difficult for the child being taken away from each parent for half or of part of the year, but it seems that people have done it and it worked. DH has not had a relationship with the child before (long story), and he is 2, so being made to stay with someone who is almost a stranger will be so hard on the child, but at the same time, DH wants a relationship with his son. What makes things harder is that DH and the mother do not have a good relationship and the last thing we want is to cause tension that the child will pick up on. What a mess. I don't know what the right thing to do is anymore. :confused: