Essay on the Child Support Scheme: Policies and Impact Analysis

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the Australian Child Support Scheme, examining its historical background, policy evolution, and impact on children and society. It begins by outlining the scheme's inception in 1988, highlighting its purpose in addressing the financial challenges faced by children of separated parents, and its evolution through various legislative changes and reviews, including those in 1993-94, 2003, 2005, 2006-2008, and 2014. The essay explores key modifications, such as the involvement of the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Department of Human Services (DHS), the shift in assessment methods, and the introduction of new formulas for calculating child support obligations. Furthermore, the essay discusses the scheme's influence on the lives of children by ensuring financial security, reducing parental conflict, and promoting economic development, concluding that the Child Support Scheme plays a significant role in safeguarding the future of children and contributing positively to the economy. The essay references key publications that support the arguments.

Running head- CHILD SUPPORT SCHEME
Child Support Scheme
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1Child Support Scheme
The Child Support Scheme focuses upon attaining adequate financial support in order
to provide a proper livelihood for the children whose parents are separated. It provides certain
benefits that would secure the future of the child. “The Department of Social Services
(DSS)” posess the duty for the management to provide adequate child care support in order to
arrange for adequate legislation and it functions to improve the child support policies to allow
more operative distribution of the system. “The Department of Human Services (DHS)”
delivers such schemes and delivers services to the parents of that child. DHS supports parents
in order to apply for child support schemes. The Child support Agency assists the Child
support Scheme. The focus is upon providing support to the children through various
methods in order to ensure the future of the child. This essay further study upon the
background and the influence of the child support policies on the future of the children.
In the year 1988, the child support scheme was first presented to understand the
distresses of the capability as per the orders of the court. It was introduced in order to combat
the difficulties that were faced by children due to inadequate maintenance where a single
parent particularly dealt the child. It also included other concerns such as the women facing
poverty, and the children facing the problems in cases where their parents are undergoing a
divorce. The concern was mainly to provide support to the children where one of the parents
is not willing to support the maintenance of the child (Skinner, Cook & Sinclair, 2017). The
Australian Taxation Office had the principal obligation in order to provide for the child
support payments. This system is presently controlled by the “Department of Social Services
(DSS)” and conveyed by the “Department of Human Services (DHS)”. The scheme is based
upon the responsibility of a parent in order to maintain their child and ensure the economic
security when parents are detached. It limited the engrossment of the Government by
allocating the cost for raising the child in separate families and restrictive the Government's
participation by assigning the costs of hovering kids in divided folks amongst parents and the

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Administration. Previously When the organization was presented, the child support scheme
was grounded upon providing a sum of money to the parents based upon the income of the
parent.
The primary operation was held in in the year of 1993-94. The Joint Select Committee
was in favour of such scheme, but the Joint Committee noticed few problems and they made
few changes and the with these modifications the child support scheme worked. The
modifications included an increase in the amount for the payer and the decrease in the
amount for the payee, $ 260 was set as a minimum limit as a liability for the child support.
One of the noteworthy changes they introduced was the modification in the internal
objections processes.
In the year 2003, the Standing committee made certain modifications in order to
ensure the arrangements for custody of the child. “The House of Representatives Standing
Committee” commenced an investigation upon the arrangements for the child custody in the
incident of domestic failure. This investigation was the consequence of budding distresses
that the child faced by separated parents and the solution was provided as the daily care that a
child requires and focused on providing such daily concerns with a child. The
recommendations by the Committee included the assumptions of the family for the shared
care of the children and further recommended an establishment of a ministerial taskforce as a
formula for the child support.
In the year 2005, the ministerial Taskforce recommended the changes to deal with the
sustenance and maintenance for the children. Even the Administration supported many
Taskforce, and significant changes were noticed in the years from 2006-2008. In the year
2006, specifically, the detached parents with 14 per cent more care were entitled for the “with
child” rate. Few systems were introduced, such as the fairer assessment and the increase for

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liability that could be credited. Subsequently in the year 2007, the review for the child
support was provided to the “Social security Appeals Tribunal”, by provided that more time
to the parents to toil for the parenting provisions and improved such systems of arrangement
where parents have a disputed child (Ha, Cancian, & Meyer, 2018). Finally, in the year 2008,
the new child support formula was used for both the parents for their income and recognized
the cost for providing the care to the child based on the essential cost to raise a child
Australia.
On March 2014, the Minister for the social services requested the Standing
Committee to inquire on the matter of the social policy and the legal affairs. The findings of
the Committee suggested that the child support schemes function following the laws as per
stated. They made 25 recommendations that were implemented in following the scheme. The
budget of 2017-18 the Government in implementing their responses based upon the
recommendations that were set as a priority in the inquiry reports (Broadway, Kalb,
Kuehnle, & Maeder, 2017). The three areas were noticed as the areas where the existing
policy could not work upon and noticed a reformation in such policies that were inconsistent
with the meeting the objectives of the schemes. The main focus was upon the introduction of
the legislation. Hence for that “The Family assistance” and “Child support Legislation
Amendment( Protecting Children)Act, 2018” was passed on 14 September 2017 (Smyth,
Chisholm, Rodgers, & Son, 2014). The prime objectives of such legislation included more
robust initiatives on the part of the parents to obey with the orders of the court. Thus these
changes resulted in more equitable management for handling the financial crisis of the
children having separated parents.
The child support scheme has a substantial influence upon the life of the child by
providing him with a proper livelihood along with that it has a first impact upon the society.
A child is considered as an asset for tomorrow and safeguarding their livelihood would mean

4Child Support Scheme
a secured economy. For a child who is brought up in a house where both the parents do not
stay together and by the option the child will get anyone parent apart from the financial
factors the child may be subjected to severe issues such as aggression or depression. These
schemes not only provide the monetary benefit for a secured future of the child but also
include arrangements where the child could be able to stay with both the parents (Natalier &
Hewitt, 2014). This schemes successfully had a positive impact upon the society by reducing
the constant between the parents and in spite, provide a proper solution that would combat the
problem. In today’s world many divorce cases are coming up and with such increasing
amount of the divorce maintaining the child became necessary, and through these schemes, a
person has to take up the liability for the payment of the maintenance for the child support.
In conclusion, it is stated that the impact and the importance of public policy are
robust upon Australian society. These schemes have been successful in bringing out the
importance of the maintenance of the children having divorced parents and in turn it helps to
safeguard them against the instances of poverty and help in the sustenance of life like an
ordinary child. Although in scenarios where parents refuse to continue their marriage, the
liability imposed upon them for the maintenance of the child secure the future of the child
and does not make his life a burden. Therefore schemes like The Child Support Schemes are
significant in order to safeguard the future of the child and has contributed in a positive
contribution to the economic development.

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Reference
Broadway, B., Kalb, G., Kuehnle, D., & Maeder, M. (2017). Paid parental leave and child
health in Australia. Economic Record, 93(301), 214-237.
Ha, Y., Cancian, M., & Meyer, D. (2018). Child Support and Income Inequality. Poverty &
Public Policy, 10(2), 147-158. doi: 10.1002/pop4.215
Natalier, K., & Hewitt, B. (2014). Separated parents reproducing and undoing gender through
defining legitimate uses of child support. Gender & Society, 28(6), 904-925.
Skinner, C., Cook, K., & Sinclair, S. (2017). The potential of child support to reduce lone
mother poverty: Comparing population survey data in Australia and the UK. Journal
of Poverty and Social Justice, 25(1), 79-94.
Smyth, B., Chisholm, R., Rodgers, B., & Son, V. (2014). Legislating for shared-time
parenting after parental separation: Insights from Australia. Law & Contemp.
Probs., 77, 109.