When a couple is divorcing, important questions include: how much will the child support award be, and who will pay it?
Each of the states provide official child support guidelines so that parents and/or their attorneys can estimate the answers to these questions. Federal law requires every state to have clearly defined guidelines. The states maintain websites where you can type in answers to the questions that the guidelines consider, and when you are done an estimate of the child support award will be made.
However, one should be cautious when utilizing child support guidelines. As guidelines, they are exactly that – simply predictions to be used for suggesting approximate support figures. The guidelines themselves are not meant to replace the actual calculations determined by a court.
Child support guidelines work by accomplishing a few basic objectives:
- Establishing the parent’s legal obligation to pay child support: This may involve measures such as a paternity test. The law requires both parents to pay part of the cost of raising the child, and it assumes that each parent can or should work and earn an income.
- Determining the amount using various formulas: This may be different for each state.
What Are Some Factors Used in Support Guidelines?
Child support guidelines incorporate several factors, including:
- The amount of parenting time each parent will get with the child(ren). Typically, the parent who has the child the greatest number of days/hours will receive child support, and the other will pay it
- Each parent’s gross monthly income from all sources
- The amount of any benefits the children receive from Social Security or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs because of a parent’s disability or retirement
- How many children each parent has
- Any child support orders already in place for either parent
- Any spousal maintenance orders for either parent
- The monthly cost for medical and dental coverage
- The amount of child care costs
- The amount of schooling costs (tuition, etc.)
- Any special educational costs, or physical, emotional or mental needs of the children
- The cost of any extracurricular activities
What Happens if One Party Refuses to Provide the Information Used to Calculate Child Support?
If one of the parties does not provide information to allow the court to determine the amount of child support to award, the court will set child support based on other available evidence, including past work experience and/or testimony of the other parent.
The court can also set a minimum amount provided for in the law, including calculating monthly income. This is often done by assuming that the parent is capable of working at least 30 hours per week and earning 100% of the current federal minimum wage or state minimum wage, whichever is higher.
Is There a Cost of Living Adjustment for Child Support?
Because the cost of clothing, food, housing, and transportation goes up over time, most child support orders say that the amount of child support can be adjusted every 2 years based on increases in the cost of living.
Cost of living adjustment increases do not usually happen automatically unless the county child support office is involved in collecting support. The party who is receiving the child support must ask the court to change the amount of child support based on increases in the cost of living.
How Do You Enforce a Child Support Order?
The enforcement process can be complicated.
One enforcement option is a Motion for Contempt of Court. If a party repeatedly fails to obey an order to pay child support, the other party can ask the judge to hold them in contempt of court. They will be held in contempt if they were ordered to pay support, knew about the order, and have refused to pay without good reason.
A person in contempt of court is typically given a chance to correct the problem. If the parent does not do what the judge orders to correct the problem, the person can actually be put in jail until they are willing to follow the order.
How Are Child Support Disputes Resolved?
Failing to pay child support can have severe consequences. Courts take this responsibility very seriously and will typically give high priority to cases where one parent is not meeting their obligation to care for their children.
The type of punishment that is ordered for not paying child support will depend on the reasons that a parent failed to pay child support, how cooperative or uncooperative they have been with the other parent, what efforts they have made to make the payments (e.g., have they paid at least part of what they owe each month), and on how far behind they are in missed payments.
Consequences for not paying child support may include:
- Action from a child support collections agency
- Withholding of a state and/or federal tax refund
- The court may revoke or suspend the parent’s driving privileges and recreational licenses such as hunting licenses. In a worst case scenario, the court may even revoke a professional license like one issued by an attorney’s bar association or a doctor’s medical board.
- The court may order that a lien be placed against the parent’s property until the payments have been made. If the parent fails to do so before the lien period expires, then the property can be seized and sold to pay the child support..
- The missing payments may be reported to credit agencies as unpaid debt, which could affect that parent’s credit score.
- The other parent may obtain a wage garnishment order from the court. A wage garnishment order will inform an employer to withhold a certain portion of a person’s paycheck until the amount of the child support is paid off.
- A court may also hold an indebted parent in contempt of court or issue a warrant for their arrest. In addition, if the court issues a warrant for the indebted parent’s arrest, then they may also face criminal penalties for not paying child support, including having to pay criminal fines and potentially receiving a jail or prison sentence.
- This can happen when a parent has failed to pay child support for an extended period of time (usually around a year or when the amount owed surpasses $5,000). The parent may then be arrested and will need to appear in court where they can be convicted. A conviction in a criminal case for failing to pay child support can result in heavy criminal fines, a lengthy prison sentence, and the loss of some parental rights.
What Can I Do If I Can’t Make My Child Support Payments?
If a parent is not able to make child support payments in the amount that was originally ordered, they may be able to have the child support order modified to a more affordable rate.
However, it should be noted that it is very difficult to obtain a child support modification – there have been too many cases where the parent gave false information to the court, trying to get the payment lowered, and courts are skeptical when a person making a normal salary claims to suddenly be reduced to poverty. The parent will typically be required to get caught up on the existing back payments before modification of future support can be made.
Some reasons that may entitle the non-custodial parent to a modification order include:
- Losing a job or having to take a job for less pay
- Increasing school or healthcare costs for the child, which make it impossible for the parent to keep up with payments
- Encountering a medical or health issue that makes it impossible to work
- If the custodial parent received a substantial raise at work and no longer needs as much child support
Do I Need a Lawyer for Help with Child Support Guidelines?
Child support guidelines can often be very difficult to understand. It may be necessary to hire a child support lawyer in your area if you need assistance with child support guidelines. Your lawyer can explain how the guidelines work, and what your legal rights and obligations are under such laws. Also, your lawyer can assist you during court meetings for child support.
