Child support is a parental responsibility that parents legally owe to their children. It is common for the parent paying support (the obligor) to feel angry about the support order because it generates financial stress for them, they feel their former spouse is spending the money purely on themselves, or both.
On the other hand, the parent who has custody of the child may also be unhappy with the child support order because the obligor fails to pay the support or the support falls woefully short of the monthly costs associated with the child’s needs.
The rules regulating child support try to strike a balance between the economic needs of the obligor and the economic needs of the custodial parent. Typically, the obligor has to continue paying support until the support order ends. However, sometimes it is possible to change or modify an existing child support order.
What circumstances trigger the need for a child support modification?
Job loss and other financial setbacks
The income of both parents is one of the factors the state considers when establishing a child support order. Therefore, an existing child support order may be decreased if the obligor has lost their job, been demoted, or taken an involuntary pay cut. The court doesn’t do this automatically, however, and the obligor should never independently decide to stop paying support, or even to lower it. Rather, the obligor must file a motion to have the decrease considered by the court and a new order issued.
Note that an obligor who voluntarily reduces their income by quitting their job to pursue a less lucrative career path may not be awarded a modification. In such cases, the courts may impute the obligor’s earning potential to justify the existing support order.
An improvement in circumstances
Similarly, the custodial parent could ask for an upward modification when the obligor improves their financial circumstances. A significant increase in the obligor’s income could lead to a good-fortune increase in the child support they pay
On the other hand, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If the obligor learns that the custodial parent has obtained a better job or received a substantial raise, this too might lead to a modification, but one where the courts reduce the amount of child support the obligor pays.
A shift in child-related expenses
When establishing child support, the court also considers the basic expenses of the child. When those expenses change, a support modification may be appropriate. For example, perhaps the parents agreed long ago to move the children to private school once they reached high school age, or maybe there is a drastic increase in a child’s medical expenses. In scenarios such as these where the cost of caring for the child has substantially increased, the custodial parent can request additional support to to respond to the increased needs.
Finally, as mentioned above, formal modifications are the only surefire way to avoid enforcement actions. The obligor typically cannot reach an informal agreement with the custodial parent without putting themselves at risk of the state taking action to enforce the existing court order. Furthermore, informal arrangements run the risk of one parent or the other changing their mind—something that is out of the question with a court order. For these reasons, divorced parents are strongly encouraged to pursue a formal child support modification order after experiencing a change (good or bad) in household finances.