Child Support

A family's postdivorce economic situation will likely be different from its predivorce economic situation. In most cases, divorced parents set up separate households whereas they lived together in one home while married. Because the same resources cannot support two households at the same level as a single household, awards are often considered inadequate by the custodial parent and burdensome by the obligor.

An existing support order may be modified if the child's needs or the paying parent's resources change. Back child support can be ordered if a modification or other order delays payment.

Remarriage or COHABITATION does not necessarily affect child support, although if demonstrated to be a permanent change in circumstances, it could become a basis for modification. A child's ADOPTION releases the obligor from future payments but does not cancel an arrearage.

Some orders are automatically modified when certain conditions are met. For example, an escalation clause allows the child support amount to increase as the obligor's income increases. A cost-of-living-adjustment (commonly referred to as COLA) clause permits modification without a hearing when there is an increase in income coupled with inflation. The purpose of these clauses is to keep cases out of court. Courts usually do not approve automatic increases that are not based on an increase in income.

To ensure that orders remain adequate and equitable, Congress began in 1993 to require that states review and, if necessary, adjust child support orders at least once every three years if the custodial parent receives federal public assistance. This arrangement differs from state modification standards that are based on changes in circumstances.

BANKRUPTCY does not end a child support obligation. A child's move, if authorized, does not end support. And an obligor's estate may be required to continue support payments after the obligor's death. In most cases, the obligation ends only when the child reaches the age of majority, marries, or can support herself or himself. In some states, the court may terminate or suspend child support as a way to enforce a visitation order. The difficulty with this modification is that the child may suffer as a result.