Department of Human Services defends secrecy around wait times, claiming parents would swamp the agency if they knew how long the process took

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Parents face long delays applying to the Department of Human Services to increase their child support, leaving them financially vulnerable and emotionally distressed, according to a single mothers’ group.

The Community and Public Sector Union and public-sector sources have told Guardian Australia it takes at least seven weeks to allocate applications to vary child support to case officers, although the department has disputed the figure.

The department has refused to reveal wait times for assigning reassessments, claiming it would be swamped with inquiries if parents knew how long the process took.

Instead it says all reassessments are allocated and then completed within an average of 60 days.

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The child support system allows a parent to apply to vary an initial assessment to claim higher payments from the other parent in many circumstances.

These include: that the other parent earns more than reflected in the assessment; the child has special needs, including medical bills; the parents agreed to send the child to private school; or a parent is struggling to support them due to care of another child.

The deputy national president of the CPSU, Lisa Newman, told Guardian Australia the child support section of the DHS had a backlog of 1,500 cases for reassessment for six months.

“We believe this has been a result of greater customer awareness of the reassessment process and the workload and staffing changes that have occurred over the last few years,” she said. “Losing permanent jobs has certainly not helped.”

Newman said the time between lodging an application and allocation of the claim to a case officer had been between seven and nine weeks.

The chief executive of the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children, Terese Edwards, told Guardian Australia reassessments were “often not made within 90 days”.

“Single mothers reliant on child support – and 90% of payees are women – often straddle the poverty line and struggle to keep their families afloat,” she said.

Delayed payments could mean parents could not afford to pay for school activities or delayed medical treatment for children, Edwards said.

“There’s also an emotional component – while they are waiting for child support assessments, they are still at the mercy and control of their former partner.”

Edwards said single mothers often would not go through with the reassessment, even where they had a legitimate claim, because the process was too long and difficult.

The Department of Human Services general manager, Hank Jongen, denied that it takes seven to nine weeks to allocate a case, and said that “on average a change of assessment is completed within 60 days”.

“The department assigns and processes assessments as quickly as possible.

“It requires exchange of information between both parents who are party to a child support case, investigation of information provided by both parents, which often includes seeking verification of this information from third parties.”

On 21 March and again on Friday, the DHS declined to say what the average time to allocate reassessments to case officers is.

Responding to a freedom of information request for the information, DHS refused on Friday to release reports containing average or minimum wait times, claiming that to do so would release confidential information and would cause a “surge” of inquiries about delays.

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According to the department, four weekly reports on changes of assessment were within scope but it refused to provide them because they “contain information about specific change of assessment applications”.

No reason was given as to why the department could not redact confidential information including data that would identify specific applications, while still allowing release of average wait times.

It said releasing wait times would have a “substantial adverse effect” on its operations because it “could reasonably be expected to create a surge in enquiries to the department regarding timeframes for processing [changes of assessment]”.

“[Changes of assessment], and their outcomes, have a substantial effect on the day-to-day lives of applicants, including determining how much, if any, child support they are liable to pay,” it said.

“Therefore, I am satisfied that release of information about processing timeframes could reasonably be expected to lead to increased enquiries from members of the public.”

Edwards believes the child support reassessment process should be simplified, including by creating a fast-tracked process for straightforward changes such as claiming private school fees or orthodontic costs, which should not require resubmission of income and other information.