Using passports to make sure child support arrears are paid

It used to be the case that if you wanted to stop someone leaving the country who owed lots of money for their children, you had to go to court and obtain an injunction. This rare procedure was expensive.

More recently, powers have been given to the Child Support Agency to prevent defaulters from leaving Australia by cancelling their ability to leave until payment of the arrears has been made. Little has been heard of the impact in Australia, but recently the US State Department has been cancelling passports in that country when the arrears are only $2500.

This has had dramatic results- see article.