(23k)Transcript
7 July 2009
Interview with Madonna King, 612 ABC
E&OE PROOF ONLY
SUBJECTS: Child Support Agency, Tax Bonus, overdue child support payments.
MADONNA KING: There have been people who have missed out on their $900 stimulus payments because they did not lodge their tax return in time. But thousands of single parents have also been caught out claiming the $900 bonus. More than 20,000 parents were picked up when they lodged their tax return – to get their handout – and a check found that they were behind on their child support payments.
Chris Bowen is the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and a whole lot of things, including Human Services, good morning Chris Bowen.
CHRIS BOWEN: Good morning Madonna, good to talk to you.
KING: How many people have been caught out?
BOWEN: Well we have found, as you say, a big increase in the number of people putting in tax returns, which means that we have tracked down a large amount of outstanding debt. We have had 27,000 intercepts and recovered $32 million in outstanding debt.
KING: You’ve already recovered $32 million in debt?
BOWEN: That’s correct. This is debt to families, not to the government. These are outstanding payments that go from one parent who does not have custody of a child to the parent that does.
KING: And how were they caught out Chris Bowen?
BOWEN: Well as you outlined, to get the Government’s Tax Bonus you needed to submit a tax return. One of the big difficulties for the Child Support Agency is when parents simply disappear from the system; they don’t want to be found or they move around or they don’t lodge tax returns. We found a big increase in the number of people lodging tax returns and that allowed us to track down a number of those difficult clients who had previously been very difficult for the Child Support Program to recover debt from.
KING: What was the worst case brought to your attention?
BOWEN: Well there’s a number. One case that I have seen was where somebody hadn’t lodged a tax return in 20 years and we managed to recoup $18,000 in debt from that individual, again, for the other part of that family.
KING: Was it accidental or a controversial way to catch people out by offering them $900 from the fiscal stimulus package and cross checking them to see if they do owe money elsewhere?
BOWEN: That certainly was not the reason why we required people to lodge a tax return that was just the right way to design the payment. But certainly the Child Support Program – we make no apologies for this – has used this as a mechanism to target those who owe the other part of their former family a significant amount of money. The very important point to make here Madonna is that the vast majority of non-custodial parents do the right thing and the majority aren’t actually part of the Child Support Program; they come to their own arrangements with their former partners. But there are a number of parents who manage to rack up a significant amount of debt and it part of our job to help the family - and at the end of the day the money goes to the kids – to recover the debt whatever way is possible.
KING: We keep hearing the term ‘dead beat Dads’. How many of these, what is it, 27,000, were women?
BOWEN: Look I don’t have those figures with me, but the majority of these would be fathers. That’s the way the Child Support Program works. But there a significant proportion that are mothers as well.
KING: So how much has been paid back to the families who are owed the debt?
BOWEN: That’s the $32 million that has been re-paid as part of this process.
KING: How much is outstanding and is still owed?
BOWEN: We are looking at about, domestically, $795 million, which is a substantial figure Madonna, of outstanding debt. Now to put that in context, since the Child Support Program started in 1988, $12 billion has been transferred. So about 92 per cent of outstanding liabilities have been transferred, but that’s approximately $800 million outstanding in debt.
KING: How do you go about collecting the money from those who went to lodge their tax returns to get the $900 but were found to owe child support? How do you get the money out of them?
BOWEN: There are a range of processes that have been put in place. We have the Tax Return Intercept Program where we say you can have the $900 stimulus payment, but that tax refund that you have received, we are going to intercept that and give that to the children whom you owe the money too. We also have a range of mechanisms in place, we can contact the employer and garnish a part of their wage and pay directly to the family; we can put a hold on bank accounts; and we can stop overseas travel in extreme circumstances – have a hold placed on their passport and keep the people in Australia. That concentrates the mind; if they want to travel they need to repay the debt.
Madonna, often we find, that making contact with the parent and saying ‘we’ve got you and you have this outstanding debt’; one of the remarkable things is that having been found they actually say ‘I’m glad you have found me, I want to get this off my chest, I’ll take out a loan and repay the debt’.
Often these mechanisms aren’t necessary, but if they are, we won’t hesitate to use them.
KING: Apart from any child support, does anything else surface? On unemployment benefits or anything else?
BOWEN: Not that I’m aware of Madonna. Our focus has been child support in this particular instance. Certainly there have been a few people who haven’t lodged a tax return in a long-time and this has come up, but that’s an issue for the Tax Office to work through, but our focus has been on these outstanding debts to families.
KING: Chris Bowen, good to talk to you, thank you.
BOWEN: Great pleasure Madonna, anytime.
Ends
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