How Much Child Support Do You Pay if You Become Unemployed?

 Posted on March 31, 2020 in Child Support

If you are one of the millions of Americans who have recently lost their jobs, you are understandably concerned about your ability to pay for living expenses. For some adults, child support is part of their monthly expenses. Fortunately, you do not have to continue paying the same amount towards child support if you have become unemployed. By requesting a modification of your child support payments, you can reduce your payments to something more manageable, though it is unlikely that you could ever get it reduced to nothing.

Changing Child Support

During a divorce or separation, Illinois calculates child support payments based on the parents’ comparative incomes. Your combined incomes help determine how much you both should be spending on child-related expenses each month, and your comparative incomes determine what percentage of those expenses you will each pay for. You can request an immediate modification of child support if you have a change of financial circumstances, such as losing your job. If the court grants your request, your child support payments will be reduced if you are the paying parent, or the payments you receive will increase if you are the recipient parent. There are a few conditions to the modification that you need to understand:

• If your unemployment is voluntary, the court will calculate your income based on what you could potentially be earning and not your actual income.
• You may need to make a good faith effort to find a new job in order for the court to consider your unemployment to be involuntary.
• Child support payments can be reduced retroactively to the date that you filed your modification request but not the date you lost your job.
• In many cases, child support will be paid to the parent with a majority of the parenting time, even if the recipient has a greater income than the payer. However, there may be situations in which the parent with a higher income and the majority of the parenting time pays child support to the other parent, including in some "shared physical care" situations where each parent has at least 40% of the parenting time.

What Counts As Income?

Though you have lost your job, you are still required to pay whatever child support you can afford. If you are receiving severance pay and/or unemployment benefits, that will count towards your income for the purpose of child support. If those income sources expire, you may still be expected to pay a minimum amount based on whatever savings you have to live on.

Contact a Kane County Divorce Lawyer

It is important to act quickly if you are a divorced or separated parent who has lost their job or had their income reduced. A St. Charles, Ilinois, divorce attorney at Goostree Law Group will help you file quickly so that the support modification can start as soon as possible. Schedule a free consultation by calling 630-584-4800.

Source:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/documents/075000050k510.htm