Northlanders owe nearly $38 million in child support that dates back more than three decades, figures show.

A Northland mother, Abbey – who did not want her surname published – even applied to the Family
Court for an order of a lump sum payment after child support she was reliant upon stopped coming in.

Her child support entitlements were more than $10,000 in arrears at the time she made the application.

Data from Inland Revenue, obtained by the Northern Advocate, shows $37.7m is owed to parents from either current or older cases as at the end of June.

Currently, 6036 people across Te Tai Tokerau receive child support.

Abbey was placed into financial hardship when the child support payments she relied upon to help cover her mortgage and other household costs stopped coming in.

Abbey said she had made multiple enquiries to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), and each time she called, she was told they were doing “everything they could” to collect the arrears owed to her.

After nearly nine months of regular calls, she alleged on one occasion, the IRD call-taker informed her that although an income source for the paying parent had been identified, no requests for collection were being made.

With this new information, Abbey then made an internal complaint through IRD and the problem was resolved soon afterwards.

Her application for a lump sum payment was subsequently withdrawn from the Family Court.

While Abbey has experienced her own trials with the child support system, she said she was “definitely surprised” by the figure owed to parents and caregivers.

“When it happens to you, you feel like you’re isolated. You really feel like you’re getting picked on,” she said.

“You start to think, ‘Why can you get child support for so many other people, but not for me?’”

Abbey said she felt like child support was being treated like a “dirty word”.

Inland Revenue said without Abbey’s IRD number, they could not make any comment on her case, though a spokesperson noted every case is different as circumstances for caring and receiving parents vary.

Northland lawyer for WRMK Lawyers David Adams said child support work took up a small part of his practice.

“The IRD has responsibility for assessing and collecting child support in the first instance,” he said.

“Another issue is probably, the sums at stake don’t justify the significant expense of paying a lawyer to argue in court.”

The Child Support Act does permit parents to have the debt transferred to them, in which case they can pursue the enforcement themselves, but this is rare, he believes.

Tania Belz of Family Law Centre Whangārei said she’s had several clients who were owed “a lot” of child support from ex-partners who “dragged them through court”.

“My observation from over nearly 30 years as a Family Court lawyer was that what the average person is assessed to pay for child support in no way reflects the hard work and financial contribution of the caregiving parent,” she said.

IRD says there are penalties in place for parents who do not pay.

If child support is not paid in full or on time, penalties are charged to the outstanding amount, with late payment penalties placed upon overdue payments.

Currently, this means 2 per cent of the unpaid child support is added a day after the due date. Then an additional 8 per cent is added 28 days after the due date.

The IRD website states collecting overdue child support may mean it’s deducted from salary or wages, benefit payments, ACC payments, bank accounts or other money payable such as a trust account.

Tax refunds can automatically be used to pay child support debt. Inland Revenue also has the power to ask the Family Court to check your finances in court.

Brodie Stone is the education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie recently graduated from Massey University and has a special interest in the environment and investigative reporting.