Have a read of this article Upaid child support $17 Million note :

Inland Revenue documents released to the Taranaki Daily News show more than half the parents liable for child support in the region had an outstanding debt.

A total of $6.7m of the money is assessment debt, money either passed directly on to the childrens’ guardian or paid to the Government to cover the cost of providing a benefit to support the children.

The rest of the owed money — more than $10m — is made up in penalties.

The figures show 64.5 per cent, or 2559 of the 3965 parents liable for child support in the region, had an outstanding debt.

Now read the IRD spin ;

An Inland Revenue spokesman said the majority of liable parents pay their child support in full and on time.

The department had collected 89 per cent of all child support assessed since the scheme started in 1992, and 70 per cent of new debt cases were resolved within 12 months.

Lets have a look at what is being spun :

• The majority of liable parents , an unknown number that could be between 50.1 and 100% –
• Pay their child support in full and on time - Yet  64% of those in Taranaki have a debt which  incidentally is about the same as the % for all child tax payers.

Now ask the question why if the majority of liable parents pay in full on time why do 64% of them have a debt? Something does not add up.

• The department had collected 89 per cent of all child support assessed since the scheme started in 1992. Basically this tells us nothing useful but does raise a question: If child support collection is so successful why are so many dads owing so much money?
•  70 per cent of new debt cases were resolved within 12 months.Once again what does this mean? How many “debt cases” are opened each financial year – how often do dads get into” debt” is it the same dads repeating every 12 months?

It is disappointing that no journalist is conducting an indepth analysis of this spin.

Regards

Scrap