Folwell and Gathercole (Child support)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application by the father, Mr Folwell, to extend a child support assessment beyond his son’s eighteenth birthday. The mother, Ms Gathercole, opposed this application. The dispute centred on whether the child was undertaking full-time secondary education on his eighteenth birthday, a prerequisite for extending the assessment under the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* (Cth).

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the child was in full-time secondary education on his eighteenth birthday, and if not, whether the terminating event for the child support assessment occurred when his education transitioned from full-time to part-time. The core legal question was whether the specific circumstances of the child’s education satisfied the criteria for an extended child support assessment.

The Tribunal found that the child was indeed in full-time secondary education on his eighteenth birthday, as evidenced by his enrolment and attendance. It further determined that the terminating event for the child support assessment did not occur at the point the child’s education became part-time, but rather that the initial condition of full-time education on the eighteenth birthday was met. The Tribunal applied the principles of the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* concerning the extension of child support assessments for children undertaking full-time secondary education.

The decision under review was set aside and substituted. The Tribunal ordered that the child support assessment be extended beyond the child’s eighteenth birthday, reflecting the finding that the child was in full-time secondary education on that date.