About child support reviews

You can apply for a child support review when you think the amount we have worked out with our child support formula does not take your special circumstances into account.

Special circumstances mean your situation is out of the ordinary and different from most other people’s.

There will be a hearing where you, and the other parent or carer, can share your points of view and any evidence to support it. If we agree that you have special circumstances, we’ll adjust your child support assessment and the amount you pay or receive.

Child support reviews are free and can take up to 10 weeks to complete. Before you apply, check if there’s an easier way to update your child support assessment.

Changes to family, job and income

For more information, read our ‘Helping you understand child support reviews - IR175’ guide at the bottom of this page.

When reviews will not help

A review will not help if you:

• disagree with your care arrangement
• disagree with how your child support is being collected
• want help enforcing private child support payments
• are already paying the minimum amount and your child lives with the other parent fulltime.

If we think your situation is too complex, we may recommend you go to the Family Court for a decision. 

Grounds for review

Your special circumstances must fit under at least 1 of the 11 grounds available. These cover things like having another child or person in your care, unexpected costs or inability to earn income.

Each ground has a list of the information we need to consider your application. Any information you provide will be shared with the other parent or carer, so make sure you’re comfortable with them seeing it before you send it in.

Sharing information means:

• everyone knows what will be considered
• everyone has a chance to respond to what has been provided
• the process is as fair as possible for everyone involved.

However, you cannot share any details from reviews with anyone else – unless you have permission from us or the Family Court.

Grounds for child support reviews

Who can apply

Either the paying (liable) parent or the receiving carer can apply for a review. The other parent or non-parent carer in the child support assessment can choose to respond with their point of view.

You can also withdraw your application anytime up until the hearing, for example if your situation changes.

Review hearings

When we have everything we need, we’ll arrange for a hearing with a review officer. Review officers are people experienced in law who do not work for Inland Revenue except to make recommendations on child support reviews.

You can choose if you will attend the hearing or not, or if you bring a support person. Your support person can help you prepare your information, but they do not have an automatic right to speak during the hearing. They also cannot be a lawyer or experienced advocate.

Hearings take up to 30 minutes and are:

• informal compared to court hearings
• held separately with each person involved
• for clarifying information provided and discussing everyone’s circumstances.

Making decisions

Decisions are made after the hearing. Depending on what information is provided, the decision may have the opposite result of what you intended.

We'll let you know the outcome in writing, usually within 3 weeks of the hearing.

Learn more about how review decisions are made and how they might affect you.

Decisions for child support reviews

Ongoing payments

Your payments will continue until a decision is made. Paying parents can apply to reduce payments during the review, but you would need to have a very good reason for this to happen. For example, if there were unusual delays in reaching a decision.

If you think your payments should stop during your review, talk to us about how you can request this. 

Apply for a child support review
Respond to a review