How a single complaint helped to improve Child Support services

What happened?

In March 2024, we received a complaint about Services Australia’s Child Support Program from a member of the public. They told us that Services Australia had ceased their Child Support payments without giving them the chance to prove they had not reconciled with their ex-partner.

Because of this decision, an incorrect debt was raised against them, collection action was taken, and they did not receive Child Support payments for a significant period.

The complainant successfully appealed this matter to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). The AAT agreed with their concerns and upheld the objection to the Child Support decision.

However, they told us that they were not satisfied with the response from Services Australia and their related interactions with Child Support staff. The complainant felt they were judgmental, and their responses were not trauma informed.

What did we do?

Our Office investigated the actions taken by Services Australia in its decision-making process and in handling the complainant’s concerns about family violence.

As a result of this investigation, the Ombudsman found that the actions taken by Services Australia were ‘unreasonable, unjust and oppressive, and otherwise wrong in all the circumstances.’

Outcome of our investigation

The Ombudsman published a report on this investigation: Without Judgement – Services Australia – Improving the interface between Child Support and victim-survivors.

The report made 4 recommendations to Services Australia about:

• improving policy, guidance and training to enhance trauma-informed principles
• using appropriate record keeping for decisions
• training/retraining staff in the error correction process(es) using a holistic approach
• offering compensation to the complainant.

In its response to us, Services Australia accepted all 4 recommendations and outlined their implementation plan.