A mother sought our help in stopping the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) from enforcing a child support order against her from 40 years ago. She said a court had previously terminated the support order and she did not owe any money – but the FRO was still going to court to get her to pay what it said was $35,000 in arrears. Her passport and driver’s licence had been suspended as part of FRO’s enforcement action.

Result: We discovered that the FRO was not aware of the earlier court order that terminated the woman’s support obligations. After our intervention, it took steps to reverse the woman’s arrears and waived the fees for reinstating her identification.