Sharing care of children

If a child regularly lives with each parent some of the time, the child support formula can take this into account. We call this ‘recognised care’.

It’s important to get this right, since generally the more a child is in your care, the higher your costs will be.

How recognised care works

Recognised care is usually based on the number of nights a child regularly lives with each parent or carer.

To be included in the formula, the child needs to live with someone for at least 28% of the time (about 2 nights a week, or 103 nights a year). Anything less than this the formula counts as ‘0% care’.

For a parent or carer to receive child support payments, the child needs to live with them for at least 35% of the time (about 5 nights a fortnight, or 128 nights a year).

If you only have daily care

If a child is regularly in your care during the day and stays with someone else overnight, talk to us. We’ll see if this can be included in your assessment.

Sometimes no one pays

Sometimes, when a child lives in more than one household, the formula works out that no one should pay any child support.

For example, if one parent has a much higher income than the other, but also has at least 9 nights of care per fortnight. The formula works out that the parent with higher income should pay the other, but because the other parent does not have enough care (at least 35%), they cannot receive child support.

Care arrangements must be ongoing

We know life is flexible and childcare can change from day to day, but by law, we can only recognise ongoing living arrangements. For example, if a regular living arrangement changes for school holidays, your recognised care percentage probably will not change.

It's good to keep notes in a diary or calendar of when a child is actually in your care in case there’s a disagreement in the future.

Nights per year calculator

Court orders or parenting agreements

Your care percentage is usually based on what you tell us is actually happening, not what a court order might say. However, if parents and carers cannot agree on the care details for a child, we can use a parenting agreement or order, unless there is good reason not to.

Read more about parenting orders and agreements on the Ministry of Justice website.

Agree on parenting arrangements – justice.govt.nz

When your care changes

Tell us if there's been a change to ongoing care arrangements for a child. This means that either you and the other carer:

have agreed to change the arrangement
have not agreed to change it, but the care has changed anyway, and this has continued for some time and is unlikely to change back. For example, if a child starts living with one parent full-time.

How to tell us about changes

You can:

update the care details by completing the Change of circumstances section under 'More ...' in myIR
call us, especially if the other parent is on the phone with you
Complete a Change of circumstances - ir116 form
send us a letter by post.

We’ll confirm the change with the other parent and update your records. Your payments may change as a result.

If we cannot confirm the change with the other parent, or if they disagree, we may ask you for more information.

Update your details
Child support - contact us

Our recognised care questionnaire

To help us decide, we may ask you to complete a Recognised care questionnaire - IR120. This form asks for information about who the child stays with overnight and other care arrangements.