Australia’s Child Support System facilitates Economic Abuse of Women

💬 Women’s Legal Services Australia‘s Executive Officer, Lara Freidin, says fathers take “extraordinary measures” to reduce their taxable incomes and therefore payments for their children’s upkeep 🚨

🗣️ “Non-payment, underpayment and delayed payment of child support must be nationally recognised as a form of economic abuse that has long-lasting impacts on women and children, entrenching their ongoing financial disadvantage” Freidin said.

ℹ️ The Federal Government has set up an expert panel and a stakeholder consultation group to review the formula used to calculate child support payments. It is also reviewing compliance to ensure income accuracy and better collection and enforcement measures, while $5.1m will be spent over five years to examine non-compliance, how to help parents if private arrangements break down and whether the formula reflects the costs of raising children in Australia.

🔗 Read the full news story from ‘The Guardian’ via ➡️ https://bit.ly/4b2ZFow and view WLSA’s own research report into the non-payment of child support, as a form of economic abuse of Australian women, via ➡️ https://bit.ly/4dwYOhu