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How do courts decide the amount of child support to order?The courts use the Child Support Guidelines to figure the amount of child support. These guidelines use a formula to calculate the amount of child support. The formula takes into consideration the "gross" (total before taxes are taken out) weekly income of the person who will be paying child support as well as the number of children, the children's ages, and the cost of health insurance. The person who pays child support is called the obligor. The Child Support Guidelines Worksheet is used to figure the amount of child support. The amount of child support that an obligor must pay is based on a certain percentage of his or her gross weekly income. These percentages are on the Child Support Guidelines Guidelines Obligation Schedule. After considering special circumstances, a court can increase or decrease the amount of child support by as much as 2%. The court also takes into account the earnings of the parent who has the child living with him or her if that parent's income is greater than $20,000. The worksheet shows how this is done. All support orders must require that support be deducted from the obligor's wages by his or her employer and sent through the Department of Revenue to the receiving parent, who is called the obligee. An order that requires the employer to take the child support from the wages is called an income assignment or wage assignment. If you receive public assistance, then the child support collected by the DOR goes to the state, except for $50 each month, which goes to you. How do the Child Support Guidelines work?Under the Guidelines, judges must calculate a child support order taking into account the incomes of each parent, the number of children that are going to be supported by the child support order, the ages of the children, and the cost to the parents of providing health insurance for the children. What is the Basic Order?First, judges must calculate a "Basic Order". The Basic Order is based on the non-custodial parent's income and the number of children to be supported. The judge is permitted to adjust the Basic Order up or down by 2%. The table below shows the amount of the Basic Order for several levels of non-custodial parent income
What do the Child Support Guidelines say about the amount of the order for children of different ages?The Guidelines increase the Basic Order to reflect the costs of raising older children. The table below says how the Basic Order should be increased according to the age of the oldest child for whom support is sought.
What do the Child Support Guidelines say about situations where there are more than 3 children covered by the child support order?When there are more than three children covered by the order, the Guidelines do not require a specific amount, but do state that the order should not be any less than the amount for three children. If the judge doesn't order any more than the amount for three children, the judge has to give written reasons for the decision. What Is the Custodial Parent Income Disregard?The Child Support Guidelines recognize that custodial parents often must work in order to maintain a home and reasonable standard of living for the children. In order to encourage this employment, the Child Support Guidelines do not count the custodial parent's earned income, up to $20,000 per year (the "disregard"). Also, they do not include the custodial parent's child care expenses when adjusting the basic order downward because the custodial parent is working. Anything above $20,000 per year plus the child care expenses is used to reduce what the other parent contributes. What does "custodial parent" mean?In the Child Support Guidelines, "custodial parent" means the parent with whom the child lives most of the time. The Child Support Guidelines do not apply if the parents have shared physical custody, which means that the child lives about the same amount of time with each parent. What if the other parent says he or she can't pay child support because he or she already has other children to support?If the other parent already pays child support for children other than yours, that is not an excuse for not supporting your children. However, if there are prior orders requiring the other parent to pay support, and they are actually being paid by the other parent, the court deducts those payments from the other parent's gross income before applying the child support formula. The place for including this deduction is on the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet. What happens if the obligor is not working?If the court decides that a person is either purposely unemployed or underemployed, the judge can order that person to pay child support based on his or her potential earning capacity rather than actual earnings. The child support guidelines say that the court may consider potential earning capacity if it decides that either parent is earning substantially less than he or she could through reasonable effort. When determining potential earning capacity the court takes education, training, and employment history into consideration. The court considers potential earning capacity when it decides that the parent is capable of working and is unemployed, working part-time or is working a job, trade, or profession other than the one for which he or she was trained. While these rules apply both to parents who have children living with them and parents who do not, they do not apply to custodial parents with children under six living in their homes. Unemployment compensation, disability benefits, and worker's compensation all count as income. Produced by Massachusetts Law Reform Institute Last updated 31 January, 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||