The Commonwealth Ombudsman has found that Services Australia has failed to crack down on the weaponisation of child support, allowing abusers to dodge payments largely without any consequences.

An investigation into 279 complaints about the child support program between November to February has found that an overwhelming number of separated mothers, 73 per cent, were being financially abused through the system.

The paying partner, 83 per cent men, were deliberately not making payments or underpaying, lying to reduce their income, lying about care arrangements and becoming abusive or violent to stop the other parent from seeking help.

One parent complained that their former partner owed them about $32,000 in child support and said that Services Australia staff had failed to help them.

Another parent reported that their former partner had deliberately not lodged a tax return for five years to avoid having a child support assessment calculated to commence payments despite working two jobs. 

The ombudsman report, which was handed down today, found that the total amount of unpaid child support grew by five per cent in the 2023-24 financial year — the highest growth in about 10 years.

As of the end of last year, there was about $1.9 billion in unpaid child support, with 153,694 paying parents having an average debt of $7261. 

The ombudsman concluded that Services Australia is “not doing enough to actively deal with the weaponisation of the child support program”.

“While its approach is well-intentioned and welfare-focused, it is not helping to get the money owed to parents when their kids need it the most,” the report wrote.

“The agency is not actively identifying financial abuse or using its enforcement powers as effectively or proactively as it could.

“This passive approach is unfair.

“It allows some paying parents to manipulate the system to avoid their financial responsibility in raising their children, largely without consequences.”

It also identified issues with the legislation that Services Australia abides by, including restricting the agency’s ability to collect debts and enforce non-payments.

The report handed down eight recommendations.

Services Australia has accepted all the recommendations and will implement them fully by June 2026.

“We thank the Ombudsman for the thorough investigation into this important issue. Financial abuse and all forms of family and domestic violence are serious and damaging issues affecting many of our customers,” a Services Australia spokesperson said.

“We know financial abuse is a complex issue, and we’re working closely with the Department of Social Services, the Australian Taxation Office, and the Office for Women to address this.

“While legislation limits some of the improvements we can make, we acknowledge there’s work we can do within the existing policy to better support parents who are child support customers and their children.”