Sharon Chandra: On calls for a review of New Zealand's child support system

Calls for a review of New Zealand's child support system, which is being described by some as broken..

Figures released under the Official Information Act reveal just 0.05 percent, or 36 of 66-thousand New Zealanders in breach of child support responsibilities have been referred to court, in 12 months.

Family law barrister Sharon Chandra says the general tenor of feedback she gets, is that the system is broken.

She says that's not solely because of a lack of enforcement action, but also because of the assessed amounts that IRD direct parents to pay.

The total that New Zealanders are currently in arrears by is 663-million dollars.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So trouble in the area of child support. Of the
ninety one thousand or so who paid child supports, sixty
six thousand are in default. How many have ended up
in court thirty six that's in the past twelve months,
which is about half of one percent. And that figure,
by the way, from my ida is in fact an increase.
Family law barrister Sharon Chandras wire there, Sharon, morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
You, Good morning, Mark.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
This has been a mess forever. Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well? It seems that they have not had a policy
in place, and that is the problem here, because what
they've said is that they assess each case on its
own merits, on a case by case basis, without any
general policy or Thchriish holds in place to take enforcement action,
and therein lies the problem.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Is there a problem that can be fixed because this literally,
in my experience, has been going on for decades. I
don't know how many interviews I've done about there's people default,
no one gets chased up, there's acrimony and angst all
over the place, and it's been a problem forever.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well. I think I think the reason that they've attributed
through their life back of enforcement action. First they said
it's because of COVID and also a change in government priority.
So it may very well be a resourcing issue because
it's not that they don't have the power to take action.
The legislation does give them powers to obtain warrants to

(01:17):
seed and charging orders and the light. It just seems
that they don't actually take steps and use the options
that are available to them.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Those are big number, sixty six thousand people in default.
What do you need to do to be in default?
If you missed one month that you.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
In default, you would be I expect that that number
would bundle up all the different balances of debts, regardless
of what the debt balance is. But I think the
number does increase exponentially because of the interest and penalty.
So the numbers can look a bit secured in terms
of debt balances when it includes interesting exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
What I wanted to raise, because once you're in default,
you're in default default, the fault and interest. If you've
scarped to Australia and you're never going to pay that
just builds and builds, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Absolutely that's right, And that's what that six hundred and
sixty three million number includes. All of those interests and
penalties on top of the principal balance.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
How many clients do you sit across the desk from
Sharon and simply go, look, it is the way it is.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
I'm sorry, I don't know what to do well, because
I do a lot of relationship property. What I try
to do was bundle up the child support within any
settlement around the division of relationship property. It's not a
full proof way of dealing with it, but at least
if you can incorporate it into the settlement and get

(02:34):
some kind of voluntary agreement in places part of the
overall property division, then I find that that tends to
Amelia to be issues that we're.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Talking about, because how much of a problem is anger
and fury and frustration the family court and no one
wins and everyone's a loser, etc. And hence there's the
start of the problem.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well, I think child support seems to be one of
those one of those sensitive topics for the majority of parents,
and I think it must stem from them. I mean,
you're dealing with children here, and that's usually the most
important thing in most parents' lives, and so it's a
very sensitive topic. And when you've got a system that's
not completely broken, but well on its way to being broken.

(03:15):
Then a dozen, Maxwell.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Sharon, appreciate your time verty much, Sharon Chandra ongoing problem,
of course, ninety one thousand people pay child support, sixty
six thousand are in defult. For more from The Mic
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