Work out your child support care percentage from the number of nights your child stays with you each year. See which care band you fall into and how it affects your child support payment.
120 nights per year = 32% care. Regular care (14–34%). You receive a fixed 24% cost offset against your child support liability.
Care percentage is the proportion of nights each parent has the child, calculated over a full year (365 nights). It is one of the most important inputs into the child support formula — it directly determines your cost percentage, which is the share of child-raising costs Services Australia expects you to cover.
A higher care percentage means a higher cost offset, which reduces the child support you pay (or increases what you receive). Even small changes in care can have a big impact on the final payment — moving from 127 nights to 128 nights crosses a band boundary and changes your cost percentage from 24% to 25%.
Services Australia groups care into five bands. Each band has a different cost percentage that affects how child support is split:
| Care Band | Nights per Year | Care % | Cost % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below Regular Care | 0 – 51 | 0 – 13% | 0% |
| Regular Care | 52 – 127 | 14 – 34% | 24% (fixed) |
| Shared Care | 128 – 189 | 35 – 52% | 25 – 50% (scales) |
| Primary Care | 190 – 313 | 53 – 86% | 76% (fixed) |
| Above Primary Care | 314 – 365 | 87 – 100% | 100% |
The child support formula calculates a "cost of the children" based on combined parental income. Each parent's share of that cost depends on two things: their income percentage and their cost percentage (which comes from care).
Your child support percentage is your income percentage minus your cost percentage. If your income share is 60% and your cost share is 24% (regular care), your child support percentage is 36% — meaning you pay 36% of the cost of the children. Without any care credit, it would be 60%.
Moving from "below regular care" to "regular care" (crossing the 52-night threshold) creates the single biggest change in child support payments. Going from 51 nights to 52 nights gives you a 24% cost offset where you had 0%.
Services Australia counts a "night of care" as a night where the child sleeps at your home (or is otherwise in your care overnight). Here's what to include:
Daytime-only contact does not count toward care percentage. The child must stay overnight with you for it to be counted.
Count the total number of nights per year your child stays with you — including regular nights, weekends, and school holidays. Divide that number by 365 and multiply by 100. For example, 120 nights ÷ 365 = 32.9%, which falls in the "Regular Care" band.
Yes. Care percentage covers the full 365-day year. If your child spends 2 weeks of school holidays with you, that's an extra 14 nights toward your total. Many parents underestimate their care percentage because they forget to include holiday time.
If your actual care differs from your assessed care by more than 14 nights per year, you can apply to Services Australia to update your assessment. The change takes effect from the date you notify them. If you're considering changing care arrangements, use this calculator to see how it would affect your band.
Care percentage is the raw proportion of nights (e.g., 120 nights = 33%). Cost percentage is the dollar offset Services Australia applies based on your care band (e.g., 33% care = 24% cost offset). They are related but not the same number — the cost percentage jumps at band boundaries.
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