ADDRESS TO LONE FATHERS ASSOCIATION 2010 NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Introduction

Good morning and thank you for inviting me to speak with you today.

Can I start by thanking Barry Williams and the Lone Fathers Association for the work you do.

Relationship breakdowns are never easy.  And for a parent separated from their children, the pain is particularly acute.

People who have not been in that situation cannot fully understand what it would be like.  But those of us who have children can only imagine what it would be like to be separated from them.  And it is not a pleasant thought.

For the emotional and physical support that you provide people – both those who have been separated from their children and those who have primary caring responsibility for their kids – I want to say thank you.

I would like to talk to you today about what we in the Government are doing to improve the way we deliver services, both through the Child Support Agency and throughout the Human Services portfolio.

Service delivery reform

It has been six months to the day since I announced our plan to reform the way we deliver services.  And six months later, we have made a lot of progress in implementing service delivery reform.

Service delivery reform is about looking at the way we are providing services to the Australian people – whether through Medicare Australia, Centrelink or the Child Support Agency – and coming up with ways to do it better.

It represents a fundamental shift in the way Australians do business with the Government.  It will result in new and modified services; services that are designed with the needs of those who use them first and foremost in mind.

In other words, it is designed to give you what you need from Government in a more convenient way.

The aim is to join up our services across the portfolio to give you one port of call to access them.

We have already started a transformation that will see agencies integrate their functions and activities.

Co-location

The most visible aspect of this reform process is the co-location of Medicare and Centrelink services and last month I announced 21 co-located centres.

The Child Support Agency is ahead of the game when it comes to co-location, as it is already co-located with Centrelink in 27 locations.

The aim of co-location is to reduce the time and hassle of spending your time going to three different offices to deal with different aspects of Government service delivery.

Instead of getting in your car, driving to the Child Support Agency, finding somewhere to park, waiting in a queue, getting back in your car, driving to Medicare, doing the same all over again, and then going to Centrelink as well, we want you to be able to do it all in one place.

As the program continues, I expect Child Support services will be offered from more locations.  And, by the end of 2014, we aim to have every single office offering a range of services.

We are also working on a single website and a single phone number to act as portal for you to deal with these Government agencies and to direct your call to the appropriate area.

I know Philippa Godwin, the Deputy Secretary in charge of Child Support at the Department of Human Services, will talk to you tomorrow about what’s happening inside the Child Support Agency as part of the reform process.  But I want assure you that the focus is on improving the performance of CSA for a better experience for those of you who have to deal with CSA on a regular basis.

CSA is already looking at the services provided to families by Government agencies, and how those services can be integrated to be made available more easily and simply.

“Tell us once”

Part of the rationale for service delivery reform and the co-location of agency offices is an attempt to move towards a “tell us once” policy.  This means that, rather than explaining your situation over and over again to a range of different people at every agency, you should only have to tell us your story once.

One area where we are making progress on this front involves the work of the Family Assistance Office and the Child Support Agency to align the rules regarding care levels for separated parents.

The Alignment of Care initiative was announced as part of the 2009/10 Federal Budget and the rules are due to come into effect in just over two weeks.

From 1 July, the Family Assistance Office and the Child Support Agency will use the same consistent set of rules to work out the percentage of care each parent provides.  This new co-operation between the two agencies will make life a little simpler and easier for parents.

Parents will only have to tell their story once and their percentage of care will then be assessed by either the Family Assistance Office or the Child Support Agency.  The other agency will then be notified of the decision, including any changes, and will update details automatically.

The benefits are obvious.  By aligning the rules, we aim to reduce conflict and remove the strain on parents who currently have to deal with two agencies and two different sets of rules.

Subject to the passage of the legislation, the new rules will be implemented from 1 July.  It will apply to all care determinations made on or after that date. The Child Support Agency and Centrelink will automatically transfer care determinations for mutual customers from July.

As part of the same Bill, which was introduced into Parliament by Minister for Families Jenny Macklin and is currently before the House, the Government is simplifying the income estimates process by changing the child support income estimates period from 15 months to 12 months.   

Aligning the child support period to the financial year will provide simplified arrangements for customers estimating their incomes.  The current 15 month estimates period can result in the period crossing over three financial years so customers and the CSA have to wait for up to three tax returns to be lodged before an income estimate for child support can be reconciled.  This delay to reconciliation is not acceptable to both paying and receiving parents, and this measure fixes it once and for all with an automated reconciliation process aligned to financial years.

Richmond Review

In addition to our broader service delivery reform agenda, this is also a time for reform within the CSA.

When I was appointed Minister for Human Services last June I wanted to ensure that the CSA was properly set up to deliver its services.  So I asked Professor David Richmond, one of Australia’s most respected and experienced public servants, to review the operation of the CSA.

I know the Lone Fathers Association spoke with David Richmond as part of that process; I thank you for your input.

Following the review’s recommendations, the Child Support Agency has already introduced a new organisational structure and adopted the recommendations on improving its service, including in relation to access to customer information.

More recommendations will be implemented over coming months to deliver better service for parents and I am sure you will notice the benefits of these reforms.

Change of Assessment reform

I know that the Lone Fathers Association has been working with the Child Support Agency on the co-design reform initiative, which is all about involving stakeholders in the design of services.

One of the key topics here is the Change of Assessment process.  The Child Support Agency is tackling Change of Assessment reform on a number of fronts to make the process simpler and more customer friendly.

The first is the development of simpler, shorter application and response forms. The current application form will be reduced from 40 pages to seven.

Customer testing is underway and the new forms are scheduled to be available sometime in the next few months.

Simple supporting documents, such as a fact sheet and checklist, are also being developed to complement these new forms.

The second change involves administrative reform of the current process, which is now being trialled in Adelaide and Melbourne.  This will mean you get to speak to a decision maker earlier in the process and receive better case assessment.

To date, 70 per cent of applications in the trial have been finalised within 35 days and over 90 per cent within 50 days.  The new model has also seen an increased number of customer agreed outcomes, and a very low objection rate.

The third aspect of reform involves looking at options for legislative change.

A new framework for Change of Assessment has been developed to move it from the current quasi-judicial process to a simpler, faster administrative model, which will be far easier for customers to use.

This proposed change will lead to better customer service, higher levels of consistency in decision-making, more predictable outcomes and more streamlined processes.  I particularly want to thank Barry Williams and Wayne Butler from the Shared Parenting Association for their work with the CSA on this.

Bigger picture

As you know, the Child Support Agency’s role is to support around 1.5 million separated parents to transfer payments for the benefit of their 1.2 million children.

The core focus here is to assist parents – both mothers and fathers – to meet their child support obligations and maintain sustainable payment arrangements.

Since the inception of the Child Support Scheme in 1988, over $13 billion of more than $14 billion in liabilities relating to CSA collect cases has been met.  In other words, 92 per cent of the child support liabilities have been paid.

More than half of Child Support Agency customers – or about 800,000 parents – have private collection arrangements where the parents transfer funds without the agency’s involvement.  So, taking into account the Agency’s Collect and Private Collect programs, 96.5 per cent of all liabilities have been transferred.

Of course, gender is irrelevant in relation to ensuring parents support their children.  I know that a large proportion of your organisation’s members are women and I want to recognise your inclusive approach.

There are, after all, more than 100,000 female paying parents registered with Child Support Agency, representing 13.4 per cent of all paying parents.

The Government fully expects parents to meet their child support responsibilities, whether they're mothers or fathers.

Most paying parents do the right thing and pay their child support in full and on time and I want to acknowledge that.For those who don’t pay, however, the Child Support Agency has a comprehensive and robust compliance program and will use the means available to it to collect overdue child support.

And so it should.

Child support is there to benefit the children and, through the Child Support Agency, the Government is there to look after children’s interests.

The range of measures the Child Support Agency employs to recover outstanding child support includes early intervention, garnisheeing from wages, interception of tax refunds, enforcement of tax return lodgement, investigation of income minimisation, optical surveillance, departure prohibition orders and, in the most serious cases, litigation or prosecution.

Compliance is a non-stop program for the Agency.  Last month, for example, I announced that an early intervention program had seen the Child Support Agency contact more than 35,000 defaulting parents over a six month period.  This initiative resulted in parents committing to pay $11.2 million in outstanding child support.

The early intervention teams focus on proactively contacting parents who have recently defaulted on their first payment.  The program is designed to help parents who have missed a recent payment so that their debt doesn’t build up and they can continue to provide for their children after separation from their partner.

Of course, the CSA will take parents’ individual circumstances in account and provide them with options, including referrals for financial advice.

We don’t believe in punishing people for struggling financially.  We want to ensure they are in a financial position to continue to make their child support payments.

You know and I know that child support payers can get behind in their payments for a number of reasons, but it’s important for them to get back on track and support their children.

After all, the purpose of ensuring payment is not to punish parents but to provide for their children.  And so CSA will always take an approach that is most likely to result in obligations being fulfilled.

Any parent who is struggling to pay their child support should contact the CSA before missing a payment.

The CSA takes a collaborative and consistent approach to collecting outstanding child support by working with stakeholders. 

For example, in December last year I announced a partnership between the Child Support Agency and the Australian Financial Counselling and Credit Reform Association to improve financial support services to separated parents. 

The partnership created a CSA hotline for financial counsellors so they can access immediate child support advice and information when they are working with a separated parent to help them get back in control of their finances.

I’ve seen first-hand how CSA supports separated parents through more connected services, real partnerships, early engagement and effective communication.

As I’ve said, most parents do the right thing and pay their child support in full and on time, and more than half now use private collect arrangements, without intervention from the Child Support Agency.

Conclusion

Last December, when I launched the service delivery reform initiative, I talked about how the Human Services agencies – including the Child Support Agency, Centrelink and Medicare Australia – were vitally important for Australians, often during a difficult period in their lives.

I said that I believed it was important that our agencies intensively assist these Australians through these difficult periods as co-operatively and seamlessly as they can.

Today, six months later, I can tell you that we have already reached some significant milestones along that road to more seamless delivery and better quality of service.

Things will continue to improve as we embrace more reform, better integration and a whole range of smarter and more effective services in line with what you need. 

And this conference is one way for me to hear what you need.  So I am happy to take your questions.

Thank you.

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