Separated parents' knowledge of howchanges in parenting-time can affect childsupport payments and Family Tax Benefitsplitting in Australia: A pre-/post-reformcomparison

Abstract

In Australia, there is much anecdotal evidence that separated parents frequently structure their parenting arrangements for financial gain from the child support and family benefits systems. But �strategic bargaining� presupposes that separated parents who bargain over child support and parenting time have some knowledge of the child support and family benefits rules. Recent work in the US context found that separated parents have limited knowledge of the rules governing child support. Is this also the case in Australia? This article draws on data from a large longitudinal study of the impacts of the Australian child support reforms to examine the degree to which separated parents have accurate knowledge of child support rules relating to parenting-time adjustments and Family Tax Benefit splitting. Similar to the US research, we found that separated parents� level of knowledge was very low. A sizeable group of parents thought they had accurate knowledge but this self-perceived knowledge was found to be erroneous. We argue that any strategic bargaining over child support and parenting time is likely to be occurring in the context of misinformation or a knowledge vacuum. We briefly discuss the implications of these findings for child support policy and service delivery. Show more