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Establishing and Calculating Child Support
1. How do custody arrangements affect child support obligations?
When one parent is awarded sole custody in a divorce, the other parent typically is
required to fulfill his or her child support obligation by making payments to the
custodial parent. The custodial parent, however, meets his or her support obligation
through the custody itself. When parents are awarded joint physical custody in a divorce,
the support obligation of each is often based on the ratio of each parent's income to
their combined incomes, and the percentage of time the child spends with each parent.
2. How are child support levels calculated?
Under the federal Child Support Enforcement Act of 1984, each state must develop
guidelines to calculate a range of child support to be paid, based on the parents' incomes
and expenses. These guidelines vary considerably from state to state, which means that in
virtually identical situations the child support ordered in one state may be far more or
less than that ordered in another state. Some states allow their judges considerable
leeway in setting the actual amount, as long as the general state guidelines are followed.
But an increasing number of states do not trust their judges to be consistent and
therefore impose very strict guidelines that leave the judges very little latitude.
Regardless of how much latitude judges are given, the guidelines in effect in most states
specify factors which must be considered in determining who pays child support, and how
much. These factors usually include:
- The needs of the child--including health insurance, education, day care and special
needs.
- The income and needs of the custodial parent.
- The paying parent's ability to pay, and
- The standard of living of the child before divorce or separation.
When a court sets child support, it often considers the family's pre-divorce standard
of living and attempts to continue this standard for the children, if feasible. Courts,
however, are aware of the difficulty of maintaining two households on the income that
formerly supported one home. Maintenance of the same standard of living is therefore more
of a goal than a guarantee.
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