VIC Child Support for Son I Can't Locate

[bencat]

I'm currently paying child support for my son. He is now 15. I have not seen him since he was 3 due to no fault of my own. My son's mother keeps disappearing. The family court gave me visiting rights, but I cannot locate him.

I am now engaged and have three young kids. A lot of my pay each week goes on child support for my son who I cannot see; he probably doesn’t even know I exist. I don't think its fair how my three kids now in my care have to miss out on things because of child support.

Do I have any rights? My issue is not the money I pay, it's that I cannot see my son I don't know where he is. I'm at any wits end its getting to the stage now where I'm thinking about waiving my parental rights too.

Any advice please on what I should do.

 

[AllForHer]

Child support payments are reduced when you have other dependant kids, so your first step is to contact the Child Support Agency and inform them of your current circumstances. A trio of dependants will likely reduce your payments significantly, though you will likely still have to pay some level of support.

Indeed, the Family Law system is very deeply flawed in that it rewards parents with greater child support payments if they refuse contact between the other parent and child. Incentivising the destruction of a very important relationship for a child is a travesty, but reform is, as always, a slow process.

 

[Tuchuzy]

Not a legal answer - a small piece of my story.

I have 3 dependents and another teenager who lives mostly with his dad.

Recently I contacted CSA to check on a few things and they mentioned that my dependents were not accounted for in my assessment. So they completed whatever they needed to do... and my ongoing payments were reduced by 50% roughly.

Apparently my dependents were not recorded properly. I had to do this twice before it stuck.

Hope this helps. And kudos to you for still paying and trying despite no contact. That is brave and hard. But don't give up your parental rights - what message would that send your son???