Hartnoll and Scruton (Child support)

This matter concerned an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) regarding a child support administrative assessment. The parties involved were Hartnoll and Scruton, with the dispute centering on the respondent's (Scruton's) estimated income for the purposes of the child support assessment. The applicant (Hartnoll) sought to have this estimate refused.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the Registrar of the Child Support Agency had erred in accepting the respondent's estimate of income for the relevant assessment period. Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the estimate was reasonable and if there was sufficient information to justify its acceptance, or if it should have been refused in favour of a different approach to calculating the respondent's income.

The Tribunal considered the provisions of the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* and relevant case law concerning the estimation of income in child support assessments. It found that the Registrar had acted within their discretion in accepting the respondent's estimate, as there was a reasonable basis for it, even if it was not definitively proven. The Tribunal concluded that the Registrar had not made an error of law or fact in accepting the estimate. Consequently, the Tribunal set aside the original decision under review and substituted its own decision, upholding the Registrar's acceptance of the estimated income.