how does the amount for child support actually get determined?
In: Other
In 99% of cases, it’s a calculation set by a series of conditions and data. I’m not a lawyer, but from what I’ve gathered in most cases the general gist of the system works like this:
First, they calculate how much each of the parents make and use that to calculate how much each parent should contribute to the total cost of raising a child. Let’s say that the father makes 60% of the household income and the mother 40%.
Then, they calculate how much time the kids spend with each parent, which they use to determine how much each parent actually spends on the children (food, clothing, schooling, etc.). In our example, the mother is the main guardian, spending 75% of the time with the kids; for simplicity, we’ll say she also bears 75% of the expenses of the children. The father spends 25% of the time and 25% of the cost of the children.
Finally, they take what it costs to raise a child (let’s say 1500 a month given they’re a normal family, the kids do some extracurriculars like school sports and whatever) and calculate the imbalance between the incomes each parent receives and the expenses that each parent should bear.
In our example, the father should be spending 60% of those 1500 dollars, so 900 dollars, but only actually incurrs 25% of the 1500, around 375 dollars. The difference between the two, coming up to 525 dollars, would be the amount of child support the father owes the mother each month.
Keep in mind, this is *very* simplified, and each jurisdiction will have its own rules, how the costs are to be divided up, special circumstances, fixed and variable payments types, etc.
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