Child Support Debts

Question

Senator NAMPIJINPA PRICE: What's the total value of outstanding payments or debts? Ms Power: That is $1.99 billion. Senator NAMPIJINPA PRICE: How many individuals or cases does that involve? Ms Power: Let me just bring up that figure. Give me one moment to find the right figure, but it's around 220,000. Mr Flavel: I think the number at the end of 2024-25 was 221,145-and, referring to what Ms Power said, those are people in agency collect. The level of debt and the number of people with debts in private collect are not known to the Commonwealth because, obviously, it's a private arrangement between two individuals with no capacity for the Commonwealth to have any insight into both the level of debt and the number of debts owed. Senator NAMPIJINPA PRICE: Of that total debt bucket, how many children are involved? For example, is $2 billion in outstanding debt for those 200,000 cases involving 400,000 children? Ms Power: We don't have that information at hand. Senator NAMPIJINPA PRICE: Is that information that you can provide on notice? Ms Power: We'll see if we've got it available and provide it on notice if we're able to.

Answer

Please see attached answer.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• DSS SQ26-000700.pdf (opens in a new tab)