Recovery of child support payment

Section 143 of the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 empowers the court to make an order for recovery of overpayment of child support assessment. Thus, a payer of child support who pays for a child of whom he/she is not a parent may apply to the court for recovery of child support assessment against the payee.

In the latter case, the payer must first apply to the court for a declaration under Section 107 that he/she is not a parent of the child for whom the payer is liable to pay child support. If successful, the Child Support Agency (CSA) is deemed to have never accepted the payee’s application for child support for the child.

Recovery of child support payment under Section 143 may be payment of a specified amount of money or transfer of property. A court order that specifies an amount of money to be paid to the former payer because of a declaration under Section 107 is called a parentage overpayment order. The CSA can register the order and recover from the payee the amount that is ordered by the court to be repaid.

A court order under Section 143 that provides for the transfer of property to the former payer is not a registrable maintenance liability. Since the CSA cannot register such an order for collection it is up to the former payer to enforce payment.