"CSA new system is so unfair. We have to pay $120 more per month under the so called fair system, now totalling $600 per month, because the mother has a private business and claims zero income. She owns her home, claims sole parent pension, "

Edna,

having processed over 1,000 comparison cases over 3 years, there is no way your payments would increase, as the average is about 30% DECREASE

By all means goto http://www.csacalc.com and I will do a report for you [free at present]

It is most impt in legal matters to get ALL facts straight, eg had not BEEN a sole/lone/lonely parent pension for over 10 years, and recently under Costello "mainstreaming, welfare to work" even the old term of Parenting Payment has been replaced by the Dole.

a lot of these subjects are also free at http://www.ablokesguide.com, but to read the whole Centrelink and Child Support chapters you would need to buy the book

Edna, I agree with DivorceDr. It is also up to your partner to take responsibility and have a reassessment if the amount seems excessive. Just complaining won't fix it. There are many factors taken into account when child payments are calculated. Your partner's income is an important aspect.

Unfortunately, a large mortgage on your part is not really your partner's child's affair, neither is the fact that the mother owns her own home. Working to pay off a mortgage is the reality for very many couples, with or without other children.

Taking into consideration ongoing and possibly increasing financial commitments for children from a previous relationship is something that has to be taken into account when a new relationship is formed. Feeling resentful about this is very limiting. Having a blended family myself I cannot understand why some people go ahead with a relationship if this is going to be an issue. Some people simply come as a package deal, which will possibly impact on your financial options.

The fact that your partner's child is covered by private health insurance doesn't actually cost him anymore than only covering you, your new baby and himself. As to the hockey, maybe the mother doesn't value her daughter doing hockey, but her dad, who happens to be your partner, does. That you support him in this is wonderful, but to feel anger towards the mother is a waste of emotional energy.

I've found that the trickiest thing to deal with when your partner's other child/eren come into it, are your own feelings. Some ruthless self reflection can assist in accepting the reality that your other half has equally strong feelings and commitments to other children as he/she does to your joint children.

Well I have to eat humble pie here as Edna was correct in her case [ie shared care and a new kid]

As I detail in the book Howard/Parkinson were up to every trick in the book [no pun intended] and the vote catching sell [that went horribly wrong] for "Joint Parenting" indeed had many whiskers and this is just one of them

Thanks Edna for posting yr case - there are some 100 billion possible scenarios so it is only when people actually USE the comparison service that more and more Howard abuses come out of the woodwork

so back to my dinner of humble pie on the BBQ