I've only recently joined this group, and thought I'd put this question out there to see if anyone else has any experience in getting their Child Support handled in a personable manner rather than the response be that "under the legislation, you don't have an argument". I understand there are some many men that are having battles with the Child Support System, and I was reaching out to anyone that may have had a win.
My situation is that I've been separated from my kids mother coming on 10 years, I've 14 & 10 year old daughters and a 12 year old son. We have managed to not so amicably raise our kids in a 50/50 shared care arrangement up until the beginning of this year when my oldest daughter firstly made the choice followed by my son to remove their mother out of their lives after ongoing mental and occasional physical abuse. In retaliation to this, my ex-wife has coerced my youngest to stay in her care and I am currently going through the courts to ensure that my youngest daughter isn't lost to her siblings firstly, and that she doesn't become completely indoctrinated into her mothers world......so far I have managed to get the courts agree to the oldest kids staying with me 100% of the time, seeing their mothers "as they wish", and my youngest daughter every 2nd weekend.
While this has all been going on, my ex-wife has also been investigated by Dept of Community Justice after numerous reports were made against her by her new husbands family on her step-children which resulted in an interim ADVO being placed on her. She is a qualified primary school teacher who had been working casually, but can no longer get any work after the Dept of Education found out about her ADVO. Now she is unemployed, and not looking for alternative work, and after recently attacking her new husband, is now living with her parents with my youngest daughter. Her income is currently set at the base amount due to her actions and decisions that render her unemployable.
I recently started a new business which showed excellent earnings, and as such my taxable income is quite high, and recent calculations have come back that despite me having the 2 oldest kids 100% of the time and my youngest child 27% of the time, I am expected to pay a shade over $18k per year in child support. I have been through the Change of Assessment process with the argument that she has the capacity to earn money but isn't by choice and due to her actions, which has taken close to 6 months to reach a decision and them to say that under legislation that she hasn't stopped working to receive more Child Support, so my argument was dismissed.
I've been told that there is a complaints area on the Dept Social Services website, and that it might be worth writing a letter to my local member to try and get legislation changed.......has anyone gone down this path in the past, and if so what happened?
