Services Australia has two different methods:

1. Agency Collect and
2. Private Collect.

Under Agency Collect, as the title suggests, Services Australia is responsible for registering, calculating, collecting, and transferring child support. Private Collect reduces Services Australia's obligation to register and assess the amount to be paid.

Under Private Collect, Services Australia registers the agreement whilst payment transfer is managed between parents. Private Collect is "encouraged" by Services Australia, but it's not supported by SMFA. We encourage women to enter into this agreement only after a year of paid payments in full and on time for 12 months, and only if it works best for them.

SMFA urges women to change to Agency Collect as soon as they have a problem, as Services Australia will only collect the last three months of debt. Please note that if you are the payee, you can seek to change to a child support collection agreement unilaterally (without the permission or permission of the payer).

Child Support Collect: Services Australia uses the same formula as Private Collect, and it is their role to collect and transfer the payments.

You can use this estimator service to calculate an estimate of your child support payments.