Messages

>think that the NCP has to pay a percentage of the college
>costs in addition to the CS.

The costs for college is in proportion to our incomes at the time, but, yes, my ex will have to pay child support AND a percentage of college costs (after all school loans [the the kids have to pay], grants, and scholarships have been exhausted).  

It's in our divorce decree.  

>DH's ex is to pay CS weekly (court order) as this is how she
>gets paid.  VA guidelines state that CS is to be sent in on
>the paydate if mailed, and within four days of paydate if sent
>in electronically.  She works for relatives and has made
>comments in the past to suggest that she is the person
>responsible for payroll and distributions.
>
>Her support has never came in on a regular basis since it
>began last year.  In early February, dh sent her employer a
>letter and cited the law....he also sent DCSE a letter..and
>they sent the employer a letter about this as well.  At that
>time, FOUR payments were sent in.  the next week a payment
>came in..and even a third week....
>
>Then here we go again....one here, then two weeks later.....we
>are now at three weeks without a CS payment.  
>
>What do you think?  Any need to contact her employer again?  

No, I think that you should check with DCSE and see what steps you need to take to file charges against the employer.  

>Yup...New York goes to 21....(and you can get stuck with a
>percentage of college too...)
>

In NJ, too.  Except it is 23.  

>We need help on this issue, we have a son 18 as of tomorrow,
>he is in jeopardy of failing several courses needed for
>graduation, (N.J.), he is refusing to stop using, and now has
>left our home to go live with is mother in NY, (where the
>divorce occurred) still attending H.S. in NJ, support to the
>exwife was/is being paid timely at a reduced rate for the
>remaining child in her home, since he was living in our home,
>NOW the mother wants child support for this 18 child as well,
>and she is allowing the continued use of the substance -- he
>has been accepted to college, but failing graduation, that
>will not occur.  I would like to investigate the possibility
>of having him emancipated as to me and child support in the
>event for failure out of high school.  What his mother does I
>have no interest regarding her continued support of him -- I
>do not agree to this situation at all and feel that I should
>not be giving her funds for him to use to pursue his use.  Can
>anyone advise/help me.  This matter is in the NY Court system.
> Thanks.

In NJ, she can file for additional child support for him.  As long as he is in high school, the courts will order you to pay for child support.

And the courts can order you to continue paying child support through college (to a max age of 23).  You can try and get it tied to a passing grade on your child's part.  

>My 18 year old son will meet one of the emancipation
>parameters when he graduates in June AND starts his newly
>obtained full-time job.
>
>Do I need to go back to court to stop making payments?
>
>Or do I just give my ex a friendly reminder that payments are
>ending or do I just stop and let her figure it out and find
>her copy of the separation agreement?
>
>Also, in the event he loses this job or changes his mind and
>goes to school, does the old agreement just kick in again or
>do both of us have to go back to court and extablish new
>guidelines?
>
>Thanks
>
>PS - this is a Massachusetts court issue.

Depends on what the court order says.  

If the court order says that child support continues through college, then chances are if this is just a summer job until the fall, when college starts, you will still have to pay child support.

If he isn't going to collge, then you need to go to court to stop the payments.

>Yeah, I didn't think there was anything I could do about it
>if my thinking was correct. I was unsure if the way I was
>seeing it was correct though. I was just running the numbers
>to see what the support calculator came up with. I know I am
>not the one who will actually decide how much I pay. Wouldn't
>that be nice..........
>
>
>
>
Depends on who gets to choose.  I think both sides would like to be able to decide how much is paid.  Which is probably why it ends up in court and the guidelines are applied.

One word of caution about online cs calculators, they can be off by a couple of hundred dollars.  I know the numbers (I needed a ballpark figure to see if I could even attempt to keep the kids in their home) that I came up with that my ex would be paying was higher than what the court came up with, it did give me a general idea though.  

>Currently paying support for 2 children. My obligation for 1
>will be ending soon. I want to calculate my support payment
>for the 1 remaining child. The problem is the other parent
>will shortly be going on long term disability. They will be
>receiving 2/3 of their pay which is not taxed. When
>calculating support gross pay is used. So if they were
>grossing $3900 a month AND being taxed but now will be
>grossing $2600 WITHOUT being taxed it appears to me that I'm
>going to get ripped here. It will lower our combined gross but
>it will raise my %. Their NET pay will probably be lower than
>before but not anywhere near $1300 lower yet they will get to
>lower their gross by $1300 for support calculation purposes.
>Am I thinking correctly here? Or am I missing something?

The other parent's % will probably go down.  And since it isn't a willing choice on the other parent's part (you need to have a medical reason and a doctor's signature to get disability), there isn't anything that you can do to prevent this.  

And I wouldn't be too sure about it not being taxed.  I know that when I went on short-term disability after my oldest was born, taxes weren't taken out, but I did have to declare it as income and ended up owing the IRS as a result.  

>this is part of our state statute furthermore the increase of
>cola comes with a notice that you can fie for a motion to stop
>the increase (state forms are available to file that motion
>from our self help center)

Does the statute allow for the CP to contest that?  

>Hi,
>
>facts:
>- Minnesota changed the child support calculation to a shared
>income plan.
>- The CS office stated that only new cases and cases with
>enough changes in the income would be touched in 2007 and the
>others in 2008
>- my divorce decree state that I have every other week-end and
>that day et this and that but does not state the number of
>night.
>- the new income calculation need the number of night to do
>the calculation.
>- under the new calculation I would have enough nights to be
>considered shared custody for CS calculation even though the
>divorce decree doesn't state it.
>
>the problem:
>I have filed a motion for another reason and as part of that
>motion I have asked the judge to order a new child support
>calculation and if the judge doesn't order it then I can file
>a motion for CS update. However the judge has not yet ruled on
>the first motion
>
>And here is where we add to it all and thus my question:
>The CS office is filing a COLA increase that I can stop by
>filing a motion to stop COLA but since the judge has not yet
>ruled on the first motion, ... should I file a motion to stop
>the COLA?
>
>Or should I file a motion to change child support?  I am a
>little lost
>


The one thing that I have noticed on these boards is that one thinks that one's child support will go down with a shared income calculation.  This may or may not be true.  

I live in a shared income state.  My ex would be paying less child support if my state didn't use the shared income plan.  

Yes, you do get credit for overnights that you have with your child(ren).  But don't be surprised if your child support doesn't get lowered.  There is an exception to this in my state (I would definitely check this out in your state), if the CP earns less than 2 times the poverty level (if the poverty level for a family of 3 is $20,000, the cp would have to earn less than $40,000 to qualify for this.  And this is net of taxes taken out), child support is based on sole parenting.  Regardless of how many overnights you have.  

In a shared income plan, BOTH parties incomes are put into one pot.  And then it is determined how much money people with a combined income  of XXXXX would spend on raising a child.  And then it is split based on percentages of the combined income.  The parent making more will pay the higher percentage.  

Before you go and file for a modification, you really should find out if it would actually lower your support.  Because it just may increase it.

>If you cannot afford an attorney, call the clerks office at
>the court where your order holds jurisdiction and ask them
>what forms need to be completed to get a hearing scheduled to
>cancel the CS for this child.
>
>You can file on your own. It will take a little time to get it
>moving. Do you pay the mother the CS directly, or does it get
>collected via a CSE office that then pays it out to her?
>
>If you pay her directly, take the portion you are currently
>paying for the child and pay him. Get your termination
>paperwork on file asap so this doesn't bite you in the butt.
>That kid needs money to live.
>
>It would be better to use an attorney to move it as quickly as
>possible, but as I said, you can file on  your own if you
>can't afford one.


He has no choice but to pay what the court order states.  The only person who can lower it or change who it is paid to is a judge.  If he were to pay his son's portion to someone else, he will end up paying twice.

I agree that filing for a modification should be done quickly so the right person can get the support.