Child Support Basics
Child support is an ongoing obligation that a non-custodial parent has to the custodial parent due to a terminated relationship or marriage involving a child. Child support helps financially secure a child’s life, more and more children live in poverty today due to not getting the child support they need and deserve to have. Child support is often an arrangement that is part of a divorce or separation between the child’s parents. Child support is a payment that the courts put in place to help make sure the child or children involved do not experience financial hardship because of a divorce or separation. There is a support theory that states parents are responsible for the financial well being of their children even if the children are not living with both biological parents. Usually one parent receives custodial rights and the other parent gets visitation rights of some sort. Even thought the children are not being primarily taken care of by the non-custodial parent, the non-custodial parent is still obligated to pay a set amount each month for their child’s well being and needs. This set amount is known as child support, the amount is usually set by the courts based off of both parents net disposable income. These child support payments help cover the costs of the child’s everyday living expenses, medical costs, etc. There are two basic approaches to calculating child support amounts. The first is the cost that a parent would incur supporting a child. The second approach is how much each parent can financially contribute to support the child. It is basic knowledge that the U.S. government requires all states to have a set of guidelines in place to calculate child support. These guidelines must be verified and certified as well. The guidelines are usually in the form of a computer program that will calculate child support payments based off of earnings, visitation, taxes, and various other factors of income. Most states make a child support case review every three years or so to see if any modifications need to be made to the child support order. Child support changes are also requested by the parents and can be done so at any time. Usually modifications are made if the person paying the child support loses their job and requires a decrease in the amount of child support they pay, or if the non-custodial parent has an income increase, the child support can be raised to accommodate the increase in income. Raises in child support amounts are usually requested by the custodial parent.