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Child Support Act 1991

Jurisdiction of courts in relation to child support and domestic maintenance - Orders for departure from formula assessment in special circumstances

106: Orders that may be made

You could also call this:

“The court can change how your child support is calculated”

When you apply for a change to your child support assessment, a Family Court Judge or Family Court Associate can make different kinds of orders. They can:

Change some parts of how your child support is worked out. This might mean changing things like your income, living costs, or how much is needed for your child.

Set a new amount of child support that’s different from what the usual rules say. They can also say how much the usual amount should go up or down by.

Decide that the usual rules for working out child support should stay the same for a particular child.

These orders can be different for different years or parts of years. They won’t change the child support for any children not mentioned in the order.

Every order will say how long it lasts or what event will make it stop. The judge has to be careful not to accidentally change the child support for children who aren’t part of the order.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM255352.

Topics:
Family and relationships > Children and parenting
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Part 7 Jurisdiction of courts in relation to child support and domestic maintenance
Orders for departure from formula assessment in special circumstances

106Orders that may be made

  1. In determining an application made under section 104, a Family Court Judge or Family Court Associate exercising the jurisdiction of the Family Court may make any of the following orders:

  2. an order departing from some or all of the provisions of this Act by substituting a different amount for any of the following amounts as they relate to a formula assessment, or prescribing an amount or a percentage by which any of those amounts must be varied:
    1. a person's adjusted income:
      1. a person's living allowance:
        1. a person's dependent child allowance:
          1. a person's child support income amount:
            1. the child expenditure amount applying in respect of a qualifying child:
            2. an order departing from some or all of the provisions of this Act relating to the formula assessment of child support in relation to the child and, as a result,—
              1. substituting a different annual amount of child support payable by a liable parent in place of the amount determined under a formula assessment; or
                1. prescribing an amount or a percentage by which the annual amount of child support payable by a liable parent must vary from the amount determined under a formula assessment:
                2. an order that the provisions of this Act relating to a formula assessment of child support must not be departed from in relation to a particular child.

                  1. An order under this section may make different provision in relation to different child support years and in relation to different parts of a child support year.

                  2. Subject to section 98(2), an order made under this section shall not operate so as to increase or reduce the amount of child support payable in relation to any child to whom the order does not apply, and the child support payable in relation to any such other child shall be calculated as if the order had not been made.

                  3. Every order made under this section shall specify the period of time in which the order is to apply or specify the event the occurrence of which will cause the order to terminate.

                  Compare
                  • Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 s 118 (Aust)
                  Notes
                  • Section 106(1): replaced, on , by section 26 of the Child Support Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 12).
                  • Section 106(1): amended, on , by section 40 of the Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Act 2023 (2023 No 25).
                  • Section 106(1)(a)(i): amended, on , by section 9(2) of the Child Support Amendment Act 2021 (2021 No 6).