To properly care for their children, both parents must commit themselves to paying child support. Nonetheless, it can also be a huge financial burden, particularly for disadvantaged families. Luckily, child support payments can be reduced in ways that are permitted by the law without abdicating parental responsibilities. In this post, we will discuss tips to pay less child support.
Why Pay Less Child Support
Some situations may make it difficult for parents to raise the total amount of child support required of them by the court. Some reasons why a parent may not be paying as much as the court ordered include:
- Changes in Custody Arrangements: Where custody arrangements change for example if there is an increase in non-custodial parent’s visitation periods then child support payments may change.
- Changes in Income: In case one parent loses his or her job or has a significant decrease in income they may not afford to pay the whole amount of child support required.
- Educational Expenses: This might affect the ability of a parent or a child with serious illness or unexpected bills like car repairs to pay or receive child support.
- Multiple orders: If a parent has multiple child support orders for different children, this may reduce the total payments for each child.
Tips to Pay Less Child Support
1. Provide some Evidence of a Change in Circumstances
Just alleging that you have encountered financial problems is not a reason for a change of child support order. You need to back up your assertions with factual evidence and records. To obtain a modification of child support, the party seeking such relief must demonstrate a change in circumstances such as unemployment or decreased income, substantial medical expenses, or the other parent’s increased income.
2. Negotiating with the Other Parent
A parent can engage the other parent to reach an agreement on how he will settle his bill arrears. In some cases, this may be done without outside help while in others it may require mediation by a third party. Fresh child support orders or payment schedules could be agreed upon if both or one parent has improved financially since then. It will be important to show some flexibility and willingness to give in during this process.
3. Applying for a Child Support Modification
Where negotiations have broken down or proved fruitless, it is possible to modify child support orders through the court system. This can be done by the issuing court itself. The court can change the agreement to pay lower child support if the parent’s financial circumstances have experienced a drastic change like loss of job and emergencies. A pay stub is an example of a document that can be used to support the modification request.
4. Seeking Legal Assistance
This is where hiring a lawyer familiar with family law comes in handy. Through legal proceedings, lawyers help parents navigate through the system on behalf of their parents. Financially distressed parents should not limit themselves to filing for personal bankruptcy only.
Can Child Support Be Lowered or Changed?
In such instances, the paying parent might wish to seek reduced payments if they think that their existing situation warrants it. However, revisions are often time-barred so as not to invite numerous modification requests from dissatisfied parents predicated mainly on economic conditions like unemployment.
To avoid overloading courts with modification applications, limitations on how many times a child support order may be modified must be imposed. A fair balance needs to be struck between allowing parents reasonable changes in support orders and eliminating unwarranted litigation.
Lowering Child Support for Financial Reasons
When it comes to an increment in education fees or after-school activities, a parent may get child support reduced. A reasonable increase in monthly expenses could make the court think of reducing child support owed by the parent.
Furthermore, the court may decrease a parent’s child support obligations if they have additional children. Many states Calculate Florida child support based on a percentage of the parent’s income designated to support their children.
Additionally, if the original calculation was done based on one child and the mother goes on to have multiple kids with another man, then the court has to divide up the income amongst all the children.
