The application form asks you to disclose the details of any income the applicant and their financially associated person ('FAP') receive from child support, or maintenance.
General principles
This item must be completed when either the applicant, or their FAP, receives money from another person for child maintenance or child support.
The payments must be declared whether or not the payments are made under a court order or administrative assessment. Any payments made under an informal, or unwritten, agreement must be declared.
If there is no formal agreement on the actual weekly/fortnightly or monthly amount, and some other arrangement exists, then the payments must be declared and averaged over the relevant period.
Example
The applicant (the custodial parent) and his former partner have reached an agreement whereby – instead of formally paying a weekly child support sum – she shall reimburse him for the costs of the child as set out below:
School fees: $5000 per annum
Vacation expenses: $1000 per annum
School books: $400 per annum
Total: $5400 per annum
This should be declared as $5400 yearly.
Further information
See the VLA Handbook for lawyers for further information about child support payments in relation to the income test.
Reviewed 24 January 2022