What Factors Determine Child Support?

The purpose of child support is to help ensure that parents financially contribute to the upbringing and care of their children. After divorce, it can be all too easy for parents to disappear and leave the job of parenting entirely up to the custodial parent. In the United States, in 2022, approximately 1 in 4 children lived without a biological, step, or adoptive father in their lives. While the law cannot make someone be a parent to their child, the law can force them to at least help financially provide for them, but what factors do courts use when calculating child support? Child support is how the non-custodial parent helps the custodial parent pay for child care. It helps motivate parents to stay in their children’s lives, ensure that the child is in a financially stable home, and helps the custodial parent provide for their child and themselves, but not while bankrupting the parent who is paying child support. With all of these goals that child support needs to accomplish, calculating it is a big deal. To help, the child support attorneys at Lermitte & Lubin, LLC share what you need to know. Whether you’re the parent who's going to be paying or the one who will be receiving child support, you need to know what to expect.

What Factors Do Courts Use When Calculating Child Support?

When calculating child support, several factors are taken into consideration. These include:

• Income of each parent: The income of both parents is a major factor. If one parent makes significantly more or less money than the other, that can affect the cost of child support. If the custodial parent makes more than the other, the court may think that they don’t need payments to be as high. It can also be the reverse, where because the custodial parent doesn’t make a lot, they should receive more. The court will also take into account the potential earnings of a parent based on their education and previous employment if they are temporarily out of work.
• The number of children: The more children a divorcing couple has, the more they will have to pay. Unless one child requires significantly more care due to their young age (requiring babysitters) or their special needs, the cost per child is usually equal.
• Special needs of the children: If the children are at an especially young age, or have special needs (mental or physical disabilities), child support can account for this. The parents can have a separate agreement to pay for these costs if they can agree to these terms.
• Expenses related to raising a child: This is more situational than one would think. While every child needs to be clothed, fed, and sheltered, the cost of these things fluctuates. It’s going to be based on the information the court has at the moment, and it won’t adjust automatically. This means if costs go up or down due to the local economy, you can seek a modification. This also includes the costs of basic education and medical care as well.
• Standards of living: The court wants the child to live in an environment as close as possible to the one before their parent's divorce. They will adjust child support payments which can bring the child close to that standard without bankrupting one parent.

Other considerations when calculating payments are the other terms of the divorce. This includes things like whether either parent pays alimony to a former spouse, and how much time each parent spends or can with their child.

What is Child Support Not For?

While spousal support can be used for anything, child support can only be used for the child. It cannot be used for things that are not related to the care and upbringing of children, like vacations or other luxuries. If the parent receiving child support is found to not be spending it on the child, the paying parent can collect and present evidence through an attorney. They can then seek to get their payments changed, or even seek custody modifications. Spending child support on oneself rather than your child can be seen as a sign of neglect and abuse. This can necessitate the intervention of the state and lead to having your home investigated.

Going Through Divorce? Contact the Attorneys at Lermitte & Lubin, LLC for Help

Divorce rates have decreased in the last two decades, but they’re still higher than in the decades before that. Divorce, while painful, is something you may experience in your lifetime, and this is true if you have kids. When you divorce with children, the most important thing is ensuring they are taken care of, no matter who the custodial parent is. If you need help getting a fair plan that helps you and your children survive the best you can, contact the attorneys at Lermitte & Lubin, LLC. We’re here to help.