It is no longer a government agency as it is authorised or empowered by the Australian Parliament in current legislation to assess, register or collect child support liabilities.
Under the Child Support Agency, enforcement could range from the involuntary garnishee from salary and bank accounts, to litigation and restrictions on overseas travel until payment has been made.
Prior to 1988, child maintenance was managed through the court system, this scheme proved costly to determine amounts and ineffectual in enforcing payment.
The agreement also allows income information to be shared between two agencies to ensure the correct amount of child support is paid.
These reforms were introduced in stages over four years, the first major changes to the Child Support Formula took effect from 1 July 2008.
[citation needed]) Further criticism of CSA is the use of number of nights as a way to determine how much child support should be paid to the primary caregiver[13] – though in certain circumstances, hours of care can be used if significant enough.
The Child Support Agency does not have the capacity to incorporate these nuances when determining a basic assessment, therefore adversely penalising the non primary caregiver.
However this can be addressed through the Agency's Change of Assessment process depending on how much of the paying party's adjusted taxable income is spent on contacting the child.