Child Support review

[tcjbmw]

Hi,
My husband was contacted in 2009 for paternity testing of a child he was not aware of, paternity testing proved he was the biological father of the boy. At the time of the paternity testing he was off work and collecting unemployment. The child support was figured based on what the judge termed as  "willfully unemployed" although he was unemployed prior to knowing anything about he child, so they figured his child support based on 30 hours of work at min wage - which is more than what his unemployment was paid him. So his unemployment of $117 before child support went to $64 weekly. The support also was figured with his dependents and her dependents as well as other income in the household, including mine and what I was responsible for and including her husband's and what he was responsible for. So because I made enough money at that time and we had no dependents - his child support was figured based on that. She was married and had three other children with a husband who lived on a $700 something disability check and her amount of responsibility reflected the children and income from her home.

In 2011 the mother of his son moved out from her husband and left the son/all her children to go live with a boyfriend. She lived with him for several months collecting child support for my husbands son who lived with the ex husband. Then after divorcing she married the new boyfriend in 2011 and finally took the children back to live with her (Easter of 2012 is when we first met his son) and her new husband.

Now during all this time - child support has not been changed. So last year he applied to have a review and they only reviewed his information - they didn't review the additional information for us - in these past years I have had loss of my income due to my disability and although we do not have any dependents - he has only been able to find part time work and that income is very low and he works 6 days of every month to pay support.

But she didn't submit any new information and so they didn't review hers. While she is divorced from the man who lived on SSI and is the father of three of her children. She is remarried to a man who works and earns good money, he has one dependent child who receives SS death benefits from her Mother. The Mom also shares custody of her three children with her first husband but they all live with him and his new wife, so she doesn't have them in her home anymore either. And she has started and quit or lost several jobs during these few years we have known her. None of that information was reviewed and  CSE didn't make her submit any updates, to the point that Child support is not even aware of where she lives (she still receives CSE mail at her ex mother in laws house) - or that she is divorced from first husband or married to new one (whose income has not been

Should this information be reviewed as well? We tried to report that information to CSE but nothing seemed to happen, and when we went for review they did not change his child support amount.

Any ideas that should be checked?

** on a side note, since we have met his son in spring of 2012 we have bought all of his clothes, shoes, coats, and most of his school supplies in addition to the child support - because she wont' buy him anything and has him ask us to get it. It is ok to get some, but I haven't seen him in any clothes that we didn't buy him since.

[ocean]

Every state is different buy many states do not input anything from mother. NY is 17% of your salary for one child, no matter what is happening in mother's house. Your info and step dad info should never be used in family court. In the past, when asked, I would white out my info and totals and only send DH with his info. Step parents are not legally responsible.

Clothes- buy for your house only and keep the clothes there for visits. Many people take the clothes off child when they come to them, change them for weekend/visit send child back in clothes they come in. Clothes and school supplies fall into the child support category. You are not obligated to pay anything extra for those items. If you do send clothes there, cut off tags so she can not return them. If mother says something, tell her that is what child support covers and the reason she gets money for him (plus she is supposed to spend some of her money on him too , not just dad's child support). Child support is to help pay for housing , clothing , food and basic school supplies.

[tigger]

In NC only the parents' information is used and it's on a percentage basis.  To clarify, if one parent makes 50,000 and the other makes 25,000 then CS is split 67/33.  The only time stepparents' info is used is when a parent is requesting an adjustment due to the birth of a child.  For example, my ex and his wife had a child so they calculated what his CS would be to her based on their income then decreased his income when calculating his CS for our kids. 

[MixedBag]

In NV my income was taken into consideration as NV is a community property state when it came to giving Dad an offset for transportation because Mom moved.

NORMALLY, I agree that the step-parent's income is NOT taken into consideration.

Then let me add that I believe in CA it gets taken into consideration when determining the NCP's income tax level because a spouse's income can make that go up.

Additional children in WV's calculations and the overall impact was minimal -- like not even worth discussing.  But I'd still discuss.

As an NCP, I felt it was unfair for the court to consider the CP's additional children -- resulting in higher CS being paid by me -- because indirectly it's CS for the new child and I didn't have any input as to whether additional children should be brought into "my" financial obligation/situation.  Same thing if I had more children.....CP didn't have input, so should it really be taken into consideration because now the CP might receive less money to raise our child?