Pre 1 July 2008 Child Support Agreements

Amendments to the Child Support (Assessment) Act that came into effect on 1 July 2008 introduced 2 different types of Child Support Agreements; being a Binding Child Support Agreement and a Limited Child Support Agreement. Further, those amendments abolished the provisions in the Act that enabled a party to seek variations to a Child Support Agreement and instead provided that a Binding Child Support Agreement could only be terminated.

The circumstances in which a party can seek to terminate a Binding Child Support Agreement are limited.

Prior to 1 July 2008 the Child Support Agency "vetted" all existing Child Support Agreements to determine whether those agreements could be "transitioned" into the post 1 July 2008 Child Support regime. If so, those agreements have been classified as a special type of Binding Child Support Agreement. Such an agreement can no longer be varied and can only be terminated.