This page provides data on the number of child support customers, cash collection from liable parents, and debt. All data can be found in an excel download located at the bottom of this page. Annual data is due to be updated by 30 September.
Additional information can be found on our child support page.
Number of child support customers as at 30 June
This graph shows the number of child support customers as at 30 June.
This graph has three lines showing numbers of qualifying children, receiving carers, and liable parents. The vertical axis of this graph shows the number of customers in thousands. The horizontal axis shows data from 30 June 2013 to 30 June 2023.
Notes:
- Child support customers who are no longer receiving or paying current child support but have debt in child support are excluded.
- Services Australia child support customers who are living in New Zealand under the reciprocal agreement are included.
- New Zealand child support customers who are living in Australia under the reciprocal agreement are included.
- Liable parents and receiving carers have decreased by 13% since June 2022 due to a methodology change when child support moved to a new system in October 2021.
For definitions for receiving carer and liable parent, see our Making child support payments page.
As at 30 June 2023:
- 109,000 customers were liable parents, 4% less than June 2022
- 110,000 customers were receiving carers, 4% less than June 2022
- 158,000 customers were qualifying children, 4% less than June 2022
Cash collection from child support as at 30 June
This graph shows cash collected (in millions) from child support as at 30 June.
This graph has one line showing the value of cash collected from child support customers. The vertical axis of this graph shows the cash collected amount in millions. The horizontal axis shows data from 30 June 2013 to 30 June 2023.
Notes:
- The child support cash collection includes New Zealand child support customers who are living in Australia under the reciprocal agreement.
- The child support cash collection includes Services Australia customers who are living in New Zealand under the reciprocal agreement.
- The child support cash collection includes child support customers who are no longer paying current child support but have child support debt.
As at June 2023:
- $481 million was collected from liable parents, an increase from the $453 million from June 2022.
Child support debt as at 30 June
This graph shows the number of people with child support debt and debt breakdown as at 30 June.
This graph has 10 stacked vertical bars showing assessment balance and penalty balance, and one horizontal line showing number of people with child support debt. The left vertical axis shows the amount of child support debt (billions), and the right vertical axis shows the number of people with debt (thousands). The horizontal axis represents data from 30 June 2013 to 30 June 2023.
Notes:
- Excluded is debt owed, under the reciprocal agreement, to Services Australia by liable parents who are now living in New Zealand. This debt is deemed to be owed to an external third party and is also not included in our Annual Report.
- New Zealand child support debt owed by liable parents who are living in Australia under the reciprocal agreement is included.
- Debt relating to child support customers who are no longer paying current child support but have child support debt is included.
- From 2020 to 2021 child support debt reduced by 36%. This is mostly due to work done before we moved child support to new systems and processes in October 2021.
- From 1 April 2021, we stopped charging the ongoing monthly late payment penalties to overdue child support.
As at 30 June 2023:
- Child support debt is $1.098 billion, a decrease of $90 million since June 2022
- People with child support debt is 85,199, a decrease of 5,755 since June 2022
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