Child Support Awareness Month

August is National Child Support Awareness Month. August has been dedicated to child support awareness since 1995 when President Clinton began it as part of his welfare reform agenda. The purpose of raising awareness is to improve the collection of child support payments. The preferred method of collection is wage garnishment. There is also information on sanctions for failure to pay support which may include suspension of driver’s licenses and passports for parents with child support arrears. All 50 states participate in child support awareness month.

Child support in Pennsylvania is based on statewide guidelines established by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The guidelines are intended to ensure that similarly situated parties are treated similarly and are based on the combined net monthly income of both parties as well as the number of children involved. Pennsylvania does use wage garnishment as a means of securing consistent payment. The family court has the authority to issue a bench warrant to have a party who is not making support payments taken into custody. Additionally, the court can order additional incarceration at a subsequent support hearing as a means of reiterating the importance of regular support payments and demonstrating the severity of the punishment available for failure to comply. The court can also seize any lump sum payments due to the payor including unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, insurance settlements, Social Security retirement or disability benefits, and other public or private retirement funds.

Click here to read more about child support.

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Back to School – Who Pays for What?

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This is an expensive time of year for parents with school-aged children. Back-to-school shopping bills can run high from clothes to backpacks, pencils, and notebooks. When you are divorced and have children who pays these expenses should have been negotiated during your divorce. Your child support payment may have been calculated with these expenses in mind or your agreements should have clearly stated who is going to pay for which items. Sometimes parents simply agree to share all reasonable expenses with one doing the shopping and keeping track of receipts.

Here is a little more information on child support payments here in Bucks and Montgomery County, PA.

Child support in Pennsylvania is based on guidelines established by the state Supreme Court. They are intended to make sure that similarly situated parties are treated similarly. The amount of support is meant to provide for expenditures for food, housing, transportation and other necessary miscellaneous items on behalf of the children.

The guideline amount will be based on the combined net monthly income of both parties. There are circumstances which may warrant a change in the amount including having a special needs child. Raising a special needs child may result in additional education costs due to specialized education. The Rules of Civil Procedure covering child support matters allow for deviations from the guideline amount so you could have a support order requiring these costs be covered by the parties depending on their income, the cost to raise a child, tuition, and extra-curricular activities of the child.

In most cases both parties come to an agreement on which parent pays how much for child support. Educational expenses need to be considered when drawing up these agreements though as circumstances change changes in the agreement are often negotiated.

The person who doesn’t play a role in deciding who pays for what is your child. Like every other issue that may divide former spouses, using children as pawns in a power game will not help you. It will harm your child, your relationship with your child and a judge in a future matter may take your manipulation into account when making a decision.

If you have questions about child support or feel you may need legal representation in a child support matter contact our office so we can talk about your situation, how the law may apply and what can be done to protect your interests and those of your child.

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