The Commonwealth Ombudsman has released a new investigation, finding that Services Australia is not doing enough to identify and respond to financial abuse through the Child Support program. This financial abuse is commonly referred to as ‘the weaponisation of Child Support’.

Titled “Weaponising Child Support: when the system fails families”, the report found Services Australia’s actions were either unfair or unreasonable inaddressing widespread manipulation and weaponisation of Child Support.

‘Former partners weaponise Child Support by deliberately not making payments or not lodging tax returns, lying to reduce their income, lying about care arrangements and being abusive or violent to stop the impacted parent from seeking help,” said Mr Iain Anderson, Commonwealth Ombudsman.

“Parents affected by financial abuse through Child Support keep telling us they feel abandoned and let down by Services Australia when they seek help for financial abuse in their Child Support cases.”

The investigation found that Services Australia lacked policies, strategies and training to be able to proactively identify, monitor and respond to cases of financial abuse through Child Support.

The Ombudsman made 8 recommendations, including that Services Australia more effectively enforce payment of Child Support and comprehensively review their processes, and the Government introduce a Bill to amend the law to address limitations that impede Services Australia enforcement action, better information sharing within Services Australia, and require survivors of abuse to disclose sensitive information to their former partner.

“The legislation needs reform to address systemic problems and help Services Australia ensure children are not deprived of the financial support they need,” Mr Anderson said.

Overall, the Ombudsman’s recommendations seek to improve Services Australia’s capabilities to provide better help to families being affected by Child Support weaponisation. In Australia, around 1.1 million children are supported by the Child Support program. The investigation revealed that as of 31 December 2024, there was $1.9 billion in ChildS upport Collect debt and 153,694 paying parents had a Child Support debt.

The Ombudsman’s investigation reviewed more than 270 complaints received by the Office, as well as academic research and information provided by Services Australia.

Services Australia has accepted all recommendations. The Department of Social Services accepted 7 recommendations and noted 1 recommendation.

Read the full report here.

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