Child Support is calculated based upon each parent’s gross income and on the percentage of time that each child is spent with the other parent among other things.  The formula does not consider the time spent in day care or school as time spent with a parent.   So, if the child is in day care all day or school and then spends 5 nights out of 7nights a week at their grandparent’s home then is the parent receiving the child support payments really supporting the children? or is it the grandparent that is supporting the children?  Why don’t we just rename child support as spousal maintenance and then just call it a day!

According to the American Bar Association Guide to Marriage, Divorce, and Families, more than 50% of child support owed by a non custodial parent goes uncollected.  Many cases are for children who were born out of wedlock. Even though a child is born out of wedlock it is still possible to collect child support from the non custodial biological parent through a Paternity/Maternity action.

The Court may not accept a non-custodial parent’s unemployment status when considering the child support obligation.  If the paying parent is unemployed but has worked at all before, the Court may attribute the income that the parent earned when that parent was working to the child support calculation.  In other words they may use the income that the non-custodial parent earned at the time they were working as if the parent was currently employed and earning that same wage.  I’ve seen it happen first hand!

According to the Department of Economic Security, upon request the court may make an order suspending your driver’s license, occupational or professional license if you are delinquent in your child support payments for more than 6 months.  They normally send two letters of intent to suspend your license to give you an opportunity to satsify the deliquency.  If your child support payments are not brought current after sufficient notice is given then your license will be suspended.