Survivors of domestic violence are being forced to chase their abusers for child support payments, and it’s putting them and their kids at risk. Michelle Duff reports.

Single mum Maria* was doing pretty well when the tax department called her. She had a job. Her son was happy. Her violent ex-partner owed her around $40,000 in child support, but she was almost at the point where she had given up expecting it. She barely checked her MyIR online portal anymore. It was too soul-destroying.

Then, the phone call. “It was the IRD, and they said ‘Why haven’t you been paying your child support?,’ and I said ‘No sorry, you’ve got the wrong person, he’s meant to be paying it’,” Maria says.

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