50% of marriages end in a divorce or separation. With staggering numbers like this, several factors are included in a divorce, including deciding on the well-being of children that you and your former spouse share.
If you’re reading this, you might be wondering what is child support? We’ve created a brief guide that will detail everything you know about child support, including how much is child support?
What is Child Support?
Child support is when one parent makes payments to the other to ensure that their children have everything they need. Several factors will get considered before the amount that one person pays in child support will be decided.
There are times when both parents can decide and agree on the amount of child support that will be paid to help care for the children. However, before you begin to decide on child support, we recommend that you look at the guidelines set in your area.
The first thing you need to do is hire a child support attorney because they will have knowledge of these requirements and help you navigate the system.
Who Receives the Child Support?
The person that will receive the child support is the parent that’s been given sole custody of the child. They will be known as the custodial parent; the non-custodial parent is the one that will make the child support payments.
Some of the factors that will get considered when determining how much child support gets paid includes:
- Both parents income
- Amount of time both parents will spend with the children
- Child’s expenses
The legal system will use a specific formula to determine the amount to get paid. However, when a judge is deciding on child support, they will use discretion in some cases.
How to Avoid Child Support?
In some cases, parents might be wondering how they’re going to avoid paying child support. One way you can avoid paying child support is if both parents decide that child support doesn’t need to get paid.
You will still need to present this information to the court so that the refusal of support is legally recorded. Another way you can avoid child support is if your former partner has a new partner.
Once one spouse gets married again, child support payments can get terminated in a court of law. One last way we’ve identified to avoid child support payments is if you’ve become incarcerated.
Because you’re in jail, you won’t be able to work and make the payments necessary to take care of your children.
Child Support: A Comprehensive Guide
We’ve answered what is child support.
Child support is essential to taking care of children that you’ve had during your marriage. It will help cover the child’s needs and is considered a legally binding agreement between both parents.
We hope this post had all the information you were looking for and encourage you to check out some of our other posts.