An Assessment of Proposed Changes to the Child Support Formula

Stuart Birks
Massey University – College of Business
Policy Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 31-38, February 2011

Abstract:
The current New Zealand child support formula has been in place for nearly twenty years. Despite recognised problems and ongoing dissatisfaction, only minor changes have been made in that time. The current Government has opened consultation on proposed changes which address some of the major issues, in particular the assessment of costs of children, consideration of the income of both payer and payee, and allocation when care is shared. IRD analysis replicates an Australian approach to derive a proposed alternative formula. This paper assesses the analysis. It finds that results are highly sensitive to the assumptions, that the formulation is based on questionable concepts, and that there are hidden assumptions which may be a cause of current dissatisfaction and harmful to children. A simplified alternative is suggested which recognises the limitations in analysis and implementation and may be more acceptable

Well worth the read.

Regards

SCrap

Robert Wiston discusses Dr Linda Neilsons work
Dr. Linda Neilsons website
While most American women obsess about the laments of frazzled mothers, a handful of their daughters at Wake Forest University are turning their attention to the study of that mysterious and often-demonized species – fathers. Yep, you read it right. Fathers. Dear ol’ Dad. Remember him? Each week, these young women (and one young man, who signed up because he hopes to be a good father someday) arrange their desks in a circle with Dr. Linda Nielsen, psychologist, professor and author, to learn about fathers and fatherhood in the only such college course in the country. The class is not a therapy session or support group, but a tough college course like any other, involving research, reading, field projects, papers, tests and grades. It’s just harder than most because it also involves introspection, self-analysis and the search for insight into one of life’s most important relationships.
by Kathleen Parker from Orlando Sentinel May 2, 2005
……………..

This has been a dark week for men in New Zealand with many influential people displaying ignorant misandry. Their comments show that they do not deserve to be in positions of influence.

The roller coaster was started with the government’s announced changes to our welfare system. (more…)

Hi all,

I am seeking to activate a network of parents who are concerned about the changes to the CSA 2012 to actively organise action and lobby MP’s etc.

If you are interested please email [email protected]

Regards

Scrap

Get ready Mums and Dads this is how child tax will be caculated in 2013 and as a result many of you are about to get done over by these changes.

How to workout your child support for 2013
Summary of key steps in determining child support payable for a particular child

Step 1: Work out each parent’s child support income amount (section 32). This is the parent’s taxable income plus adjustments to take into account a number of other forms of “income” (section 33), less:
– a living allowance (section 34);
– any allowance for other dependent children (section 35); and
– any allowance for other children from other relationships (referred to as child support groups) for whom the parent is paying child support (section 36)

↓
Step 2: Work out the parents’ combined child support income
↓
Step 3: Work out each parent’s income percentage (section 31)
↓
Step 4: Work out each parent’s and non-parent carer’s percentage of care for the child
↓
Step 5: Work out each parent’s and non-parent carer’s care cost percentage for the child (section 16 and schedule 1) that relates to their care percentage
↓
Step 6: For each parent, subtract their care cost percentage from their income percentage (section 18). If the answer is positive (i.e. the income percentage exceeds the care cost percentage), the parent is a liable parent. If the answer is negative, (i.e. the income percentage is less than the care cost percentage), the parent is a receiving carer
↓
Step 7: Work out the expenditure for the child using the child expenditure table (section 36D), taking into account the combined child support income amounts of the parents, the number of children in the child’s child support group; and the age of those children. This expenditure amount is divided by the number of children in the child support group to get a per child amount
↓
Step 8: The annual rate of child support payable by the parent for the child is worked out using the formula (section 29):
(parent’s income percentage – parent’s care cost percentage) x expenditure on the child
↓
Step 9: The amount that a carer receives is determined in sections 36A-C. A receiving parent receives an amount calculated applying the formula in step 8, based on their income and care cost percentages. If this is less than the amount that the liable parent pays, the balance is split between any other receiving carers
↓
Step 10: When a parent is paying child support for more than one child support group, the amount may be capped. If the amount calculated at step 8 is more than the amount calculated under the multi-group cap (section 29), the multi-group cap amount applies. This cap ensures the liability is no more than it would be if all the children from the various child support groups were living together
↓
Step 11: The amount payable may also be subject to minimum annual rate (section 30)

Dont worry, like any efficent tax they will be deducting at source and we all know IRD never get it wrong.

Regards

Scrap

I read this at my father’s funeral today:

When I went to Middlemore last Sunday to identify dad’s body, the young cop asked me: “How long have you known the deceased?”

Well, it’s been 55 yrs.

Now I know you’re not supposed to speak ill of dead but some things have to be said.
(more…)

Developments in behavioural research in the last 40 years should have long ago swept away the old ignorant prejudices, that substitute for valuable decision making in familycaught$.

The familycaught$ is largely backward looking, in attempting to decide cases by fitting them to preceding cases, rather than deciding cases according to the facts of the case and in accordance to our legislation (which requires that the interests of the children should be protected). (more…)

I have recently been made unemployed and have since found out that I owe 12,000$ in Child support from the periods ending 2004 & 2005, I thought this was strange because I become bankrupt in 2004.

After some investigation into this I found it was estimated on my 2003 income @ the maximum allowed – I did not earn that much during 2004 – 2005

After discussing this with the person in charge of my account, they have told me that I will have to apply for an administrative review.

Although after reading through a lot of this site it has become apparent that this isn’t necessary a good idea.

Although all the other cases seem to be about actions brought against men?

If someone could please perhaps point in the right direction or give some tiddbits of advice I would be forever grateful

Paul Jenkins is a name we should not forget. It confirms what we all know, child tax enforcement is draconian, brutal and drives dads to kill themselves.

Ask yourself the question: What does the IRD do? IRD is the revenue collection department, the tax woman. Its reason for existence is to collect money from citizens. It’s the Department that collects child tax. Its who advises Dunne so there is little surprise with the tinkering to the child tax act that Peter is promoting.

The whole purpose of the change is to increase compliance at the least cost for the highest return. This bill is not about making fundamental changes its a few baubles, packaged together to insure you comply.

Why are child support payments to be compulsorily deducted from salary and wages?
Paying parents will have their payments automatically deducted from their salary to ensure that as many child support payments as possible are made, and made on time

This legislation and analysis that led to the tinkering is still focused on the “same old, same old” Taxing Liable Parents via a formula assessment, a system that has failed worldwide because of the assumptions used to create the system.

Those assumptions include; Parental responsibility aka benefit recovery, income equalisation, all dads are deadbeats, one size fits all, imaginary incomes, the cost raising children……. These assumptions lead to the tinkering Dunne is proposing. It is nothing more than a 20th century solution, already out of date.

The Government’s concern is about increasing the fairness of the child support system. Although it is recognised that, for some parents, changes to the formula will result in lower amounts being received, any move to a revised formula would be made with the aim of reducing current inequities to ensure the system is more balanced, that paying parents honour their responsibilities to their children and that it is perceived to be fairer overall. It should also be noted that the other (non-formula) changes to the child support scheme are designed to improve child support payment rates, meaning that more receiving parents will receive child support payments than is currently the case

Read the info from IRD and get ready for action.

Regards

Scrap

Following Paul Jenkins death by child tax miraculously Dunne’s disaster to be gets a rapid path to first reading.

Child support is set to be overhauled in the biggest proposed changes to child support law in 20 years.
The income of both parents will be factored into child support calculations for the first time under the Child Support Amendment Bill proposed by Revenue Minister Peter Dunne which has its first reading in Parliament tomorrow.

This bill will not remove the fundemental flaws in the current child tax act, but will negatively impact, Tens of thousands of parents, particuarly Dads.

Regards

Scrap

Deepest sympathy John, please pass my condolences to all

Centrepoint commune leader Bert Potter dies

A campaign ‘Kill the Family Court’ is an initiative of the Ministry of Men’s Affairs. Protests are planned outside successive Family Courts on Fridays during June and July between 11am and 2pm. The Ministry of Men’s Affairs believes that the Family Court under its empowering legislation kills numerous men, women and children by ruining family relationships, stimulating family break-up, perpetuating unequal parenting regimes, inciting acrimony, practising gender discrimination against men, accepting false allegations and perjury, restricting communication, upholding immorality and promoting the expectation that one parent can defeat and exploit the other. Therefore the Ministry cries “Kill the Family Court”.

Please come join the cry and remind our Minister of Justice and her government that we are deeply unhappy with our Family Court! Government is currently deciding on changes as part of the current review and we need to remind ministers that ‘moving around the deck chairs’ is not acceptable. A new system is called for involving effective dispute resolution and real help for families to stay intact or to maintain cooperation after separation. Whether together or apart, parents are equally important to their children. Although some form of Family Court will still be necessary the changes required mean it will be so different as to have killed off the system that currently afflicts us.

The planned schedule of protests is as follows:

Friday 22 June: Auckland
Friday 6 July: Tauranga
Friday 20 July: Hamilton
Friday 3 August: Napier
Friday 17 August: Rotorua
Friday 31 August: Wellington

Please put your nearest protest in your diary, and any others you are able to support. Remember they will be between 11am and 2pm.

For further information contact Kerry Bevin (09)4733747, Craig Jackson (04)3892291 or Hans Laven (07)5712435 or (0274)799745.

Please liaise with these Ministry personnel if you plan to attend any of the protests and please let us know if you can assist with accommodation, hospitality or transport.

We encourage locals to spread the word about the date of the protest in your town. We suggest that you put a poster up on the notice board at your local Family Court! Many unhappy litigants may appreciate the opportunity to show how they feel. Posters elsewhere, advertisements in local papers etc will also be useful.

See you there or be square!

Or should that read Another NZer …..

There’s outrage across the Tasman after debt laden New Zealander Paul Jenkins felt so helpless, he killed himself.

The 39-year-old died in Geelong after receiving a $53,000 bill from Australian Child Support Services.

The money was to support his ex-partner and teenage daughter, who are still in Wellington.

Inland Revenue had asked the Australian authorities to chase the debt because Mr Jenkins had moved there.

Fees and interest repayments have forced automatic $125 deductions every few days, which his father Tony says he simply couldn’t afford.

He says the letter Paul received demanded an immediate payment of $813, but didn’t explain why so many automatic deductions had been taken.

Chen Guangcheng the Chinese blind dissident objects to the China
One Child Policy and Forced Abortions.

Dear Chen,

I am led to believe that a Chinese family can have more children if they choose but pay more tax as a deterrent. Your country has long been aware that this planet has limited resources and can ill afford to support a population explosion. If the father, and/or mother is unable to pay the tax then the mother will, under the rule of law, require an abortion. Is it the misuse of this law that you object to? ie. the deliberate killing of female babies.

Are you aware Chen that In NZ and most countries of “the free world” children are ripped away from their fathers immediately the mother and father no longer live together?”¦”¦. (more…)

Women’s and Children’s lives Saved by Domestic Violence Act:
Graham Barnes visits NZ speaks about Coordination
Effective Coordinated Community Responses (CCR) to Domestic Violence
New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse
SpeakOutLoud about psychological abuse

If the Act isn’t saving any lives, then why are we carrying on with it?
This analysis does not include any men’s lives that might have been saved by this Act.
Being practical, as men are rarely given protection by Protection Orders, as apparently they are not able to be injured by knifing, poisoning, shooting or killing by proxy? (more…)

FYI, emails I wrote in response to an article in this weekend’s Herald. I might add that the most common form of mumtrepeneurship continues to involve using children to have one’s lifestyle funded.

Dear Associate Professor Mueller
In a NZ Herald article (There’s no place like Mum’s biz, by Susan Edmunds, dated 22/04/12) you are quoted as stating “while most men seek self-employment as a result of trauma, such as losing their jobs, women tend to look at it as a better way to get a work/life balance”. Did this claim arise from research or was it based on your impressions? Can you direct me to any research underlying your claim? (more…)

Standard Forms help get things moving and also help to cover all important issues.

NZ Family Court offers a very brief and simple document, perhaps too simple to be of much use, but it has nice pictures?
(more…)

This thread spun out of a question put onto the Court Value and Quality thread, by Down Under.
It was off topic, but nonetheless seemed a very hot topic!
(more…)

Child Homicides – an uncomfortable truth
(Pressing the button above will show the original articles, with the figures and graphs intact.)
USA National Incidence Study Child Abuse and Neglect NIS-4
mother-hazard-father-hazard
Are unmanaged conflicts of interest hazardous to our children and our wealth?

Posted on November 13, 2010 by rwhiston

News this week that Birmingham’s children’s social services have been adjudged as “inadequate” should come as no surprise. For ten years, Birmingham and a host of other authorities such as Haringey, have hung on by their figures tips and have survived despite incompetency and an absence of proficiency.

………………
Mr. Loughton’s style is said to be to spend a lot of time speaking face-to-face with key figures and frontline practitioners – which can only be a good attribute.

In terms of policy he has made it clear that there is a “need to go through everything in the department’s budget to make sure it is justified”, which, bearing in mind the Victoria Climbie and Baby P affairs – and all the in-between fiascos – mount up to a formidable task for any new government and any new minister.

This brings us to a juncture that should concern many, and one that it is not spoken of, namely, what if the organisations the minister is speaking to are not representative ?

What if they are working to their own agenda ? How will he know their information can be trusted and their proficiency unassailable ?

The recent arrest of female paedophiles, Vanessa George and Angela Allen (2009) [1] and the opening of the trial and the opening of the trial of Rekha Kumari-Baker, who killed her two daughters [2] (filicide) are the sort of cases both society and children organisations have yet to come to terms with. (See Appendix A for a list of homicide terms).
……………
To see the graphs, see the original article – press the button at the top of this article.
Note how “mothers’ are the dominant slayer of children followed by “other men” from which we have to deduce a transient non-permanent male associate. It is fathers who almost fail to register at all as slayer of children and only become visible in the “Total’ column for all ages.

Whichever way and method child murders are recorded – be it percentages, per 100,000 or concrete numbers – the indisputable fact is that most are slain by mothers.

It is not as if British statistics have been singularly remiss in failing to point this out, the statistical services of other countries (e.g. Canada, Australia), have been equally slow or even reluctant to highlight this problem (not least because it should inform judges when they consider awarding custody of children after a divorce).

StatsCan, in particular, has long been criticised by many individual researchers over a number of years for in-built bias and “glossing over” but the real surprise was Australian child homicide data.
……………………
New Zealand is also realising the inconvenient truth that mothers are just as equally likely – some would say more likely – as fathers to kill their children.[6]

New child homicide findings by Victoria University researcher Ms. Liz Moore suggest the child homicide offending is split between males and females.
[Look carefully – NZ Herald fails to distinguish between stepfathers and biological fathers!!!! NZ has the same ratio of mother to father homicides, as USA and UK and Australia.]
She examined the post mortem results of 69 children, who were among the more than 200 murdered between 1980 and 2003. Of the 69 murdered children, 42 were boys, and the majority lived within nuclear families with both their biological parents. Ms Moore said 30 of the children were killed alongside one or all of their brothers/sisters and most of the offenders acted alone.
……………………
In an observation that is at the same time exasperating but which may at last focus the attention of all the political parties Lord Laming notes that father have a vital role to play in keeping children save from abuse. [8]

That cannot be in dispute but it will not help policy shaper to have spousal and biological fathers lumped together with “fathers’ who are mere cohabitees or this month’s boyfriend.

Time and again – and the Baby P and Khyra Ishaq cases are classic instances
– if a father had been allowed proper parental participation or access, by Social Services, or CAFCASS, a death or severe abuse could have been averted.
………………………..
The NZ CYFsAct requires social workers to consider placing children with their father, among a list of possible family carers. Some social workers honour this clause, some just apply for dispensation on the basis that they were too busy to even try to contact the father, or that they did not have contacts, because they hadn’t read the file…
Axe murderers left in the dust……………….

Sometimes when I read postings on this website, I get a bit depressed, quite a bit depressed. My old fiends, clonazepam and temazepam usually help, but if relied upon, can drop me very hard. Alternating with benzedrine usually helps, but he too can have a sting in his tail. Nortriptoline can help, if I know a few weeks earlier that I am going to be having problems.

Wellness is aided by exercise or frenzied exertion or acting out instead of acting inwards, like planning suicide. Ecstatic Chemical Therapy (ECT) helps too, when drugs are around, or the price of power is low, like at night.

Emerson’s Argument for Self-reliance as a Significant Factor in a Flourishing Life by Kathleen O’Dwyer
(more…)

EVIDENCE
Now 23, Young Woman Says She Made Up Testimony That Put Her Dad in Prison in 2002
Posted Apr 2, 2012 5:40 PM CDT
By Martha Neil

Cassandra Ann Kennedy was 11 years old in 2001, when, she now says, she made up a story that put her father in a Washington state prison from 2002 until last week.

Disappointed in her father, who, she felt, didn’t love her enough, she falsely told authorities he had raped her, wanting him out of her life to ease the pain that she felt, Kennedy told detectives in January. Her parents had divorced a decade or so earlier, and, she says, she got the idea of making up the story from the case of a friend whose stepfather was convicted of a similar crime, reports the Daily News.

Now 43, Thomas Edward Kennedy was released from prison last week after serving nine years and the case against him was dismissed. He declined to comment when contacted by the newspaper.

“This is something my whole office is talking about,” said Cowlitz County Prosecutor Sue Baur. “This is the kind of thing that shouldn’t happen.”

Baur wrote a letter to the judge in the case in February, alerting him to new evidence that created “a reasonable likelihood that Mr. Kennedy is innocent of those crimes.” She told the newspaper she continues to rethink every detail of the Longview case and recently listened to a tape of the child’s testimony, yet doesn’t see that the legal system did anything wrong.

She does not intend to pursue charges against the 23-year-old woman for lying, in part because doing so would discourage others from telling the truth after the fact.

Kennedy says she didn’t understand, as a child, the full effect that her false testimony would have on her dad.
(more…)

Well folks, who can guess what happened in the case of Emily Toner, the crown prosecutor who nipped out from Court to visit the supermarket where she deliberately concealed and stole $199 worth of groceries, and on this occasion was caught? Yep, you guessed it, DISCHARGE WITHOUT CONVICTION!

It’s reassuring to know that our legal profession can now retain the valued membership of a thief and that she will be able to continue prosecuting men, the truly bad criminals, for such dastardly crimes as waving at their children passing by in a car.

Ms Toner gave the excuse of an eating addiction that made her do it and the Court appears to have seen that as sufficient excuse. So maybe we can now expect gamblers who steal to get more money to put into pokie machines to have sufficient excuse too and to be discharged without conviction for their thievery. Well, yes perhaps, but you can be sure the Court’s mercy will only be extended to female gamblers, especially if they are also lawyers.

Similarly, most other human conditions that are accepted by Courts as mitigating factors when they affect women are seldom recognized when it comes to men’s behaviour. So when a father reacts with aggression or a minor breach of a protection order, his deep grief at having his relationship and contact with his children wrecked through false allegations is generally dismissed as a mitigating factor. The recent NZ reduction in the legal significance of provocation was based on the attitude that men should not be rewarded for any loss of self-control.

Isn’t it good to know that our Courts can still find ways to excuse women for nearly anything?

FYI, my letter to Radio NZ:

Dear Radio NZ

Regarding your story yesterday (Wednesday 28 March) on the ‘study’ about Pets as Pawns in domestic violence, I considered nominating Radio NZ for the Skeptics ‘Bent Spoon’ award for gullible, uncritical acceptance and reporting of dubious claims. (more…)

Dr. Jayne Major’s article gives many useful ideas. The comments it makes about caught$ are probably somewhat unrealistic to hope for in NZ, as many “judges” in NZ, are too slow to deliver much useful action…..

Parents Who Have Successfully Fought Parental Alienation Syndrome
by Jayne A. Major, Ph.D.

Nothing stirs up passions more than the controversy generated when parents are at war over the custody of a child. A controversy is an issue where evidence on both sides can make a compelling case. It is never black and white, but when people have their emotions aroused, an issue can quickly turn into two polar opposites. Fear takes over reason, incomplete facts become evidence, and court calendars become jammed with repeat visits to a judge to try to bring sanity to what is unlikely to ever be sane. On top of this, social movements are promoting one side over another in their clamor for justice. Politicians are lobbied to pass laws to bring order to chaos. Gender wars are fueled and lives are destroyed.

My exposure to custody wars came from the mothers and fathers attending my Breakthrough Parenting® classes at The Parent Connection, Inc., an agency that I founded in Los Angeles in 1983. Many of the parents in my classes were litigating over child custody. Most said that they wanted to settle the case, but none of them would settle by giving up all access to their child, which seemed to be the only other alternative open to them. It was disturbing to see that in many of these cases, the child was behaving outrageously, to the point of cursing one of their parents, and kicking, spitting, and calling them stupid, mean and horrible.

What can you do when one parent is intractable and vitriolic? What can you do when the child becomes caught up in the fight and starts taking sides? I came to realize that this level of conflict in custody disputes was a fallout from sweeping societal changes.
(more…)

Conflict of Interest can be a touchy subject, but it is very important that we keep in mind the consequences, or potential consequences.

Resignation Announced

NICK SMITH: “I have made not one error of judgement but two in dealing with a conflict of interest.”

Embattled MP Nick Smith has resigned all of his Cabinet portfolios.

The MP for Nelson has been embroiled in a controversy over a letter he provided to friend Bronwyn Pullar while he was still ACC minister which was used to advance her ACC claim.

“I made not one error of judgement but two in dealing with a conflict of interest in respect of a friend,” he told Parliament this afternoon.

He said doing the letter was an error and ‘more so” doing it on ministerial letterhead.
(more…)