This study seeks to obtain a contemporary snapshot of public attitudes to child support. Samples were drawn from the general population of Australian adults (including independent samples of separated mothers and fathers with a child support case) in 2024. Issues of privacy, family violence and shared costs in the context of shared care, represented newer...

Estimates of the costs of children are used in a wide range of economic and social policies. This paper provides new Australian estimates of the costs of children using a financial stress approach (a variant of the equivalent living standards approach) using data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey.

This research examines Australian trends in care time arrangements after parental separation. It explores trends in care time arrangements since 2015, including arrangements beyond shared care and differences by child age. These care time arrangements are one of the elements that determine how much child support transfers from one parent to the other.

This report examines the extent to which cohorts of families are using the Child Support Scheme compared to nearly a decade ago. It is important to understand the drivers of the decline in the Child Support Program coverage and how separated parents, especially main carers, meet the financial needs of their children.

An investigation into the actions of Services Australia and the Department of Social Services to address an ongoing issue of non-compliance with the law in relation to child support. At the time of finalising the report, Services Australia remains knowingly non-compliant with the law, six years after the issue was first identified. The report provides...