People receive their entitlements

People receiving the payments to which they are entitled is a key outcome for IR. It should be easy to claim an entitlement and receive timely payments.

Governments have introduced a variety of schemes over time to improve socio-economic issues such as the costs of raising children and need for greater private retirement savings.

For customers at vulnerable stages of their lives, the payments IR makes are especially critical. Child support payments contribute to raising 135,000 children living with separated parents. Targeted payments provide relief to families around week-to-week living costs.

IR ensures payments and refunds reach customers as quickly as possible from year to year. Our systems deliver payments and refunds efficiently, as you read about on the page below.

Tax and payments this year

We’re also able to introduce new Government social policy initiatives rapidly. Temporary payments and loans schemes helped businesses through COVID-19, and the new FamilyBoost scheme has helped 60,300 households pay for early childhood education costs.

We’ll continue to drive efficiencies and fast turn-around times through integrating services with, and greater sharing of information across, government agencies. AI tools will play an increasing role where they can do work that frees up our people to focus on more complex tasks.

Relative to other customer groups, more families contact us, mainly about the amounts they will receive and payment dates. We’ll continue to improve our self-service channels while providing them with the assurance they need.

Where the schemes are not delivering the outcomes intended by Government, we’ll provide advice and implement potential improvements.

A better Working for Families

Working for Families provides targeted financial assistance to low- and middle-income families with dependent children. Just over 80% of the families that were assessed for the credits received weekly or fortnightly payments during 2024—their payments were based on an income estimate. This indicates they needed the money throughout the year to manage essential costs.

Currently, the policy settings mean families can easily be either underpaid or overpaid. The entitlement is finalised once the income tax assessments for the year are completed. If underpaid, they’ll receive a refund. If overpaid, they’re left with a bill to pay.

Debt is a particular problem for low- to middle-income families, because it increases stress, and reduces the ability to meet day-to-day costs and take part in the things they want to do.

The risk of being overpaid during the year can discourage people from taking up additional hours or moving into higher-paid work.

IR has undertaken a review of the scheme. We think an ideal future state is one where customers know what they’re going to receive and don’t get into debt.

As part of Budget 2025, the Government launched public consultation on proposed changes to Working for Families. One key proposal is to change the way that entitlements are calculated, from asking people to estimate their income for the year ahead, to instead using actual past income earned over a shorter period.

Other proposals include simplifying the definition of family scheme income and residence requirements.

Increasing the reach of payments

For the Government to fulfil its social policy objectives, payment schemes need to reach as many eligible customers as possible. Where they don’t, it may be due to a lack of awareness that a payment exists or a perception that it’s too hard to apply. Throughout the year, when we’re educating customers about tax, we also endeavour to ensure customers understand the support available via entitlements.

We recognised that some families may still be missing out on the new FamilyBoost scheme, and an ongoing outreach effort, including digital campaigns and updates to guidance materials, is closing this gap. In July 2025, the Government also announced proposed changes that will expand eligibility and increase the amount families can claim. 

Improving fairness through compliance

In administering child support, our people are often negotiating difficult relationships between parents who don’t live together to ensure their children are financially supported.

Changes to the Child Support Scheme in 2021 implemented compulsory employer deductions from salaries and wages for newly liable parents. From 2023, parents on a ‘sole parent’ rate of their main benefit started receiving their payments, rather than them being retained by government to cover the cost of the scheme. 

More parents who are liable for child support are making their payments, but we need to stay focused on those who are not.

Child support debt has decreased from $1.37 billion in 2021 to $913 million in 2025 due to the above factors but also our proactive compliance work to reduce aged debt. This includes $658 million owed to the Crown.

Changes to child support and a smaller customer base means we can provide more targeted services to encourage compliance. 

We’re working with customers now whose circumstances can be more complex.

*Business transformation changes for child support

**Child support payments that were previously retained by the government to offset the cost of providing benefits are now passed on to carers who receive them.