Child-support payment hopes pinned on new law

ROSS GIBLIN/Dominion Post

LEFT IN THE LURCH: Catherine Braddock and her son David are owed thousands of dollars in child support by her ex-husband.

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Inland Revenue hopes a new tax law will help it prevent parents with outstanding child-support payments from fleeing the country.

The Dominion Post revealed yesterday that thousands of parents are refusing to pay child support, with nearly $1.2 billion in child support and penalties overdue.

The department's families assistance manager, Bruce Findlay, said the Income Tax Bill, due to be passed by Parliament this week, would strengthen the department's tracing ability.

Mr Findlay said the department was not permitted to exchange information about people with Customs - something that would change when the new law was passed.

"This means that Inland Revenue will be able to monitor when liable parents are arriving in and leaving the country. It will make it much easier for Inland Revenue to track liable parents."

Catherine Braddock, of Whitby, says that parents who refuse to cough up child-support payments are condemning their former partners to abject poverty.

She said her former husband owed her more than $9000 in child support for their nine-year-old son and she went months at a time without receiving a payment.

She was fortunate her second husband was willing and able to support her son. "If it was not for my current husband, I would be in abject poverty."

Lisa Bridson, of Wellington, said though she had been receiving child-support payments for the past "couple of years", she was still owed $45,000 in back payments.

Ms Bridson said her former partner left to work in Canada about 10 years ago and failed to contribute to their children's upkeep for the five years he was away.

They now share custody of their children, but Ms Bridson said it was frustrating he was allowed to leave New Zealand without making any arrangements, leaving her to carry the financial burden of raising two children on her own.

"When he left, I was on a benefit and it was really hard to get back into the workforce as there was the expense of paying for childcare.

"It was expensive to have any kind of social life, because you would have to pay for babysitters."

Ms Bridson said her former partner had shown little inclination to repay any of the money owed and that Inland Revenue was often slow to follow up missed payments.

"There have been times when payments stopped and IRD don't do anything. I had to get on to it," she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News