Child support for customers on a sole parent benefit

Child support payments are now passed on to carers on a sole parent rate of benefit, instead of being used to pay the cost of providing the benefit.

First payments passed on from 22 August 2023

The amount of child support you receive depends on your situation. To get an idea of how much you may receive, you can check your expected entitlement amount in myIR. Simply log in to myIR and select 'View my entitlements’ in the child support – 'Receiving carer’ tab. You’ll also find this information on your latest 'Notice of entitlement'. We can only pay you if the liable parent makes their payment.

This change only applies to child support for the month of July 2023 onwards. If a liable parent makes a payment for an amount they missed before 1 July 2023, it will not be passed on to you if you were getting a sole parent rate of benefit.

Check your bank account details are correct

Please check in myIR that your bank account details are up to date, so any payments we make go to the right account.

• Log in to myIR.
• Select the ‘I want to…’ tab.
• Select ‘Manage refund bank accounts’.
• If the child support bank account is correct, you do not need to do anything.
• To update your account, click ‘Add a new bank account’ and select child support as an account type.

When you update your bank account for 1 tax type, it does not automatically update all your other tax accounts, so you may need to update those separately.

Child support payments will be treated as income

The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) will treat your child support payments as income when they work out the amount of any other payments you get. We’ll tell MSD about the child support payments you get. If the liable parent misses a payment, no child support information will be passed on to MSD and your benefit will not be affected.

MSD has information about this change and others that may affect your MSD payments.

Child support payment changes (www.workandincome.govt.nz)

If you get Working for Families, in most cases these payments will not change. However, if you get child support payments and your income goes over $42,700, your Working for Families payments may need adjusting.

Voluntary agreement

If you can agree on the child support amount but would still like us to manage the payments, you can set up a voluntary agreement.

Voluntary agreement

We have more information about child support on our website.