Child support where child now lives in Australia

joanna3293

Hi, my son's mother took my son to live in Australia when he was 11 in 2005.  We agreed at this point that I would stop paying child maintenance.  My son is now 30.  I received a letter from the Australian government about 7 years ago saying that I owed the government 30,000 dollars.  My son's mother knew nothing about this, we have always been amicable and she thinks that it may be because she claimed benefits in Australia.  I never did anything with the letter and havent received anything further.  My current wife is worried that I could be forced to pay this and I wondered if anyone has experience of this?  I think it can be enforced through an agreement with the UK but is there a time limitation? Any advice or experience would be welcome, thank you

tacpot12

If no-one have any experience of this, you might need to speak to a solicitor who has dealt with this issue before. It might take some time to find a firm in the UK that has this expertise, and you are very unlikely to find a local firm with this knowledge. 

You might need to consider contacting an Australian solictor who will be able to confirm whether there is an Australian law that allows Child Support to be claimed from a parent specifically because the other parent has claimed benefits from the state.

If the Australian Government hasn't been in touch for 7 years, it seems unlikely that they would follow up on this now, but the sum involved is quite large (about £15,000) so it's probably worth doing what you can to establish the law and then whether there is any time limit. 

Exodi

Australia is a REMO country so can enforce maintenance obligations in the UK.

With that said, 7 years is a very long time so I can't see anything happening. Personally I'd let sleeping dogs lie.

tacpot12

Exodi said:

Australia is a REMO country so can enforce maintenance obligations in the UK.

...

While this is correct, I don't the sitation relates to a maintenance order, rather it is a charging order from the Australian Government (or possibly the state where benefits were paid) on the absent parent. This is why the OP needs to get to the bottom of whether there is any legaislation that would allow the government or a state to chase them solely because the other parent had claimed benefits. 

joanna3293

thank you very much for the helpful comments, really appreciate you all taking the time