Iowa Child Support Matter

[Kitty C.]

Legislative code............definitely not admin. code.  It even goes into a lot of detail regarding what has to happen for a child's college expenses to be paid, which I am impressed with, but only to a point.  It's still discriminatory if married couples aren't required by law to put their kids thru college.

[leon clugston]

being on that point so well as you are, you realy should get a copy of the state plan, as mandated under title 42 U.S.C Title IV-d of the Social Security Act, then you'll see even more stuff that will make you mad,,,by the way look up title 42 U.S.C, 650-669,,especialy 666,,then cross it for the CfR's under title 45 (code of fedral regulations) starting at 327,, you will be amazed at whats is going on..Now you were talking about parents not snding there children to college,,married that is,,the United States Suprem Court has over and over ruled ther is nor absolute right to Child Support,,its all interpretive, open to the states to decide who or how to pursue, it is a benefit, it holds no personal rights,as like so many benefits,,this is what makes this so much more enteresting, you have no right to receive, but the other party has no right to contest,,tells you where we stand now doesnt it.

[timtow]

Those are two different matters.

1.  The NCP's income is the main determinant of CS.  Look at the tables, and you'll see.  The CP's income can vary widely, and it has little effect on what the NCP will pay, a matter of a few percentage points.  

2.  Neither parent can voluntarily reduce income to distort CS.  That's what imputation is about.

[timtow]

It's an unfortunate consequence of the behavior of some NCPs in the past.  College used to be a standard bargaining chip (accept this crazy low CS, or make some other concession; otherwise I won't help pay for college).  Legislators decided parents should not be able to bargain with their kids' college education.  Hence law.  

I'm all for a law that says all parents have to pay.  If that happened, I suspect we'd have some fairly serious tuition reform, the return of some sense in hiring (plenty of jobs don't need a BA, but it's used as a screen), and changes at the federal level to put back some of that pre-Reagan college funding.  

It'd also reduce the odds of the kids borrowing themselves into bankruptcy before they even make it out of school.  I just talked to a credit counselor here about a grad student with $100K in credit-card debt.  Nevermind school loans.  And I passed up a prospective tenant, another student, who turned out to have similar debt, when I checked her credit report.  She couldn't have been paying the minimums on her debt given her income, let alone rent.  And these are the same kids who're going to get hit with increasing FICA as more boomers move into retirement.

Not good policy, eating your young.  

[JVondrak76]

We hired a family law attorney here in Sioux City.  She just started practicing here - she moved from Lincoln, NE.  She agreed that the EX should be imputed.  We have our hearing next Wednesday, and our attorney has subpoenaed a Workforce Development rep to testify as to the wage of legal secretaries in this area (to avoid the heresay problem).  Our attorney is going to send a settlement letter to the EX's attorney, offering $750 per month (instead of $946).  That way, we will still be able to do activities with the kids, buy them toys, games and other things that they want, take them to movies, etc.  If we have to pay the $946, there is no way we'll be able to afford any extras, and that isn't fair to the kids.  We just figured we'll either pay the money to the EX or an attorney, so we're taking our chances.  Wish us luck!

[JVondrak76]

I feel that it is total crap to expect all parents to pay for their kids' college educations.  It's ridiculous.  I used to work for an attorney who also acted as a financial consult, and he told me if you have the choice of either paying for your kids' college education or saving for your retirement, the smartest thing you can do fund your retirement.  There are many scholarships, grants, loans, etc. available to kids for college.  They need to exhaust all those options before looking to their parents to pay for it.  And, the idea that only divorced parents are forced to pay for their kids' college is so biased and discriminatory!  This post-secondary education subsidy should only be done in private actions at the request of the parents, not mandated by the state.  It's totally ludicris.  

[Kitty C.]

Let us know what happens....I'd be really interested to hear!  Sounds like you've found an atty. who's willing to really work with you.

[timtow]

I'm just telling you how we got here.

The attorney is correct.  However, the idea is to do both.  Partly so that your children will be able to save for their own retirements instead of paying off student loans till they're 50.  Not unusual anymore for kids to walk out of school owing $600-800/mo on loans.  And the thing is, if you start early and limit the number of kids you have to what you can afford to put through school, it's not that hard.  For my kid, at a state school, we're looking at saving about $150/mo. (and praying tuition inflation doesn't run more than about 8-9%).  The challenge will be in persuading her that she doesn't need some fancy private school with nice landscaping.  I've worked for public & private universities, and I think that unless a kid needs a lot of handholding, there's no substantial difference for the bachelor's degree.  (There is a difference for graduate degrees, but it's not a public/private thing.)  Anyway, I don't intend to pay for a private or out-of-state education, but there won't be anything to stop her from signing for loans.

This whole college-funding discussion has been quite eye-opening, for me, btw, and has me thinking it'd be wise to educate my kid in debt before she gets near 18.  A line of credit from Bank of Mom, with interest and late fees charged, should give her some taste of how long it takes to pay off large loans and how endless the cycle can be.  I think the loans -- and their easy availability -- are consigning a lot of kids to the underclass before they even get started.