What Is Child Support?

How Child Support Works

Whether you’re going through a divorce, separation, or cutting ties with the parent of your child, you’ll likely need financial support to meet the demands of raising a child. Child support is meant to help fill the financial burden left by your partner. In short, it’s payments that the parent not taking care of the child pays to the parent who is taking care of the child.

In general, to get child support, you’ll need to apply for it through state or tribal courts. In some cases, though, you can reach an agreement with your partner without going to court.

Child support is more than just court-ordered monetary payments. It also helps custodial and non-custodial parents with additional services such as:

• Establishing paternity
• Locating the other parent
• Enforcing any child support orders
• Collecting and distributing payments in some states
• Reviewing and revising child support orders where appropriate

Establishing child support in any state involves roughly the same steps, but it varies depending on your location. Here’s how child support typically works:

1. The custodial parent who cares for and lives with the child most or all of the time (“custodial parent”) applies for a child support order.
2. The other parent is located using basic information such as name, date of birth, Social Security number, address, and work location.
3. The child support agency establishes paternity if it’s not already established.
4. The local child support agency calculates a reasonable support payment and establishes a support order.
5. The non-custodial parent sets up support payments or has them deducted from their paycheck.
6. If the full amount of support payments isn’t collected, the child support agency utilizes enforcement remedies to collect the money owed.

Example of Child Support

Let’s say you and your child’s parent decide to part ways. If you have primary custody of your child and need support, you and the other parent might arrange an informal agreement for their financial contribution toward the needs of your child. You’ll need the court to approve the agreement. If you can’t reach an informal agreement, you could proceed with applying for a support order with your state child support agency.

The amount of child support would be equivalent to the proportion of financial support the child would have received from their other parent had the family remained intact; for example, if your monthly income is $1,000 and your ex-partner’s monthly income is $3,000, you would have had a total household income of $4,000 per month.

Each state’s basic child support obligations tend to vary. Let’s say your state’s basic child support obligation starts at $400, and additional expenses are added, such as childcare ($100). That gives you a presumptive obligation of $800. The presumptive obligation is prorated between both of you based on the percentage of income you contribute.

The child support calculation for the income shares model looks like this:

So, you’d be responsible for $200 of child-rearing costs while your ex-partner is responsible for $600 of the shared costs.

Requirements for Child Support

To be eligible to collect child support, you’ll need to meet a few basic requirements:

• You must be the child’s parent or have custody of them.
• The child must be under 18 years old in most states and under 21 years old in other states.
• Parentage must be established and the non-custodial parent must be located.

During the application, you’ll also need to provide the following documents:

• Your personal information (date of birth, Social Security number, address, etc.)
• The other parent’s personal information
• Income information for the non-custodial parent, such as pay stubs
• Your child’s birth certificate
• Your child support order divorce decree, or separation agreement
• Information about your income and assets
• Information about your child’s expenses

How To Apply for Child Support

Applying for child support begins with finding your state’s child support agency. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) helps you do this with a drop-down menu on its website that takes you directly to your state’s website.

In some cases, you can apply for child support online. To make the process go as smoothly as possible, come prepared with all the information you can. You may even decide to involve an attorney once your application goes to a child support hearing.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)