Inland Revenue's transformation is one of the biggest change programmes of its kind. Delivering our transformation of tax and social policy services successfully was always about understanding what customers wanted and managing changes carefully through staged rollouts. We left the changes to child support until this year because this service is complex, and we wanted to get it right for our customers. We also made a major upgrade to myIR, the secure online service our customers use.
In October 2021, we moved child support to our new system to make it easier for customers to keep track of their obligations and payments. Customers can now do more for themselves in myIR such as applying for payments. It's quicker and easier as we now pre-populate much of the information needed. Previously, customers had to fill in a form or call us to apply.
Carers now receive child support payments 14 days faster.
Parents who are new to paying child support, and those re-entering the scheme, now have their payments automatically deducted by their employer. This helps customers stay on track with their payments and avoid getting into debt.
Penalties for late payments of child support are now fairer. Parents who are new to the scheme have more time before penalties are charged if they are late with their payments. We also no longer charge incremental penalties on overdue payments. These changes were made to encourage paying parents to pay the right amounts, on time.
Shortly after we made these changes, some carers told us they were struggling to find their payment information in myIR. We quickly made some improvements and we're continuing to embed the changes and help customers get used to them. Before, fewer than 50% of our customers said it was easy to find information, whereas 60% now say it is easy.
"It's all right there when you log in."
"I like the fact that you can see what payments you are due and how much."
Inland Revenue customers.
Supporting children's wellbeing
- 163,323 children are covered by the Child Support Scheme (as at 30 June 2022).
- Carers who receive child support and parents who pay it want certainty around payments.
- 84% of liable parents who earn salary and wages are paying child support by employer deductions.
Read more about how we've performed in administering child support services.
Services to process obligations and entitlements
On 1 November 2021, New Zealand joined the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. This allows us to support more children living here and overseas, as we can now make more international assessments and get assistance from other Hague member countries to collect child support. We can work with over 40 countries under the Convention. Before, New Zealand only had a reciprocal agreement with Australia.
With a team dedicated to helping families and children get the support they’re entitled to, we're already seeing some great results locating liable parents overseas. Some parents are paying their outstanding amounts in full, and families have received child support after many years of missed payments.
We know how important myIR is to our customers so we're always looking for ways to improve it. Customers had 60 million user sessions in myIR this year. Its use has grown 140% between 2019 and 2022. myIR makes it easier for customers to check their tax and payments when it suits them. They can see all the information we hold about them and send messages when they need our help.
In October, we upgraded myIR to give it a more modern look and feel and make it easy to use on different devices. Customers can now see what they need to do all in one place. They get alerts to let them know they need to do something, and when it's due.
When we asked customers about the refreshed myIR, most liked the changes although some would have liked more help to get used to them.
"I've just logged into myIR for the first time since its big overhaul. It's really great, clearly structured and things are much easier to find and do than before. Fantastic improvement."
"Need a tutorial for those who find change difficult. What has changed and where to find it."
Read more about what customers think of the new myIR.
Upgrading our secure online service myIR