About child support write-offs

You can write off child support or domestic maintenance owed to you without cancelling your ongoing payments, or if your payments have already ended. We also call this an uplift.

We will not collect payments you have written off, but you still have the right to collect them privately or in court.

When you can write off

You can only write off amounts for periods when you:

• were the receiving carer or were receiving domestic maintenance
• did not receive an Unsupported Child Benefit (UCB)
• before 1 July 2023, did not receive a sole parent rate of benefit (main benefit).

From 1 July 2023, receiving carers can write off child support even if they also get a sole parent benefit.

Are the payments overdue?

You can write off overdue child support anytime, but if you want to write off child support that is not yet due, you also need to cancel your child support.

No penalty write-off

You cannot cancel any penalties owed by the paying (liable) parent as these are owed to the Government.

Cancel your child support

Reasons to write off

You may want to write off child support if:

• the paying (liable) parent paid you directly and you agreed to reduce your Inland Revenue child support
• you got back together with the paying parent, but they still owe you child support from when you were separated.

There may be other reasons to write off child support owed to you.

Write-offs are permanent

If you write off child support through us, this means you cannot ask us to collect that amount for you ever again. If you change your mind and want to collect the child support you wrote off, you can apply to the District Court.

How to write off child support owed to you