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how is cs allocated???

dakotamom's picture

i found BMs wage info and she makes more than DH, why are we paying HER???
I'm not understanding how this works.

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hbell0428's picture

It all depends.... Who has the child more? is it 50/50? There shoul be a CS calculator for your area - won't be 100% but a rough idea.

NewStepMother's picture

It depends on what state you live in. Ususally it depends on salary and time with the parents. Lets say for example that both parents make the same amount in salary. The child lives primarily with the mother and the father has visitation (every other weekend and every wednesday). The father would owe child support to the mother since she is the one providing for the child more than 50% of the time. Time equals money.

Usually you can go to the DCSE website and do your own calculation. It's pretty accurate.

I'm guessing you are from dakota? but like I said, every states calculation may vary.

http://www.ndcourts.com/chldspt/

dakotamom's picture

Dakota's my kid (the dog picture)
only kid i want! doesn't back talk! Smile super excited to see me

caregiver1127's picture

They take both incomes and then use the calculator. The theory behind it is that the skids would have a life with a certain amount of money and they should still have that life even though there was a divorce. Also since both parents made the kids - they both need to pay a portion of the kids to live.

dakotamom's picture

**Also since both parents made the kids - they both need to pay a portion of the kids to live.**

If you only knew.....

caregiver1127's picture

I know - it is not fair most times but the court sees it like that - and I know it is very hard especially if said BM got pregnant to trap the man - this is not fair but the courts have to be impartial - they will say that the man could have wore a condom or not had sex with the woman - in our case the BM feels that my DH should pay for all the their sons costs and she should pay for nothing - it is very frustrating and they were married for 12 years but still pisses me off - in fact the first year we were married - BM paid nothing and we had SS full time - she actually paid more for her car than her son when he lived with us for 3 years. When we threatened to take her to court that is when she took him back!

dakotamom's picture

i did the calculation - that's depressing....
well i guess it's still pretty close, and i didnt' select 2 at first - missed that part, and when ss17 graduates it only cuts the payment down by $150 instead of half as Dh and i had hoped for....i'm bummed Sad

caregiver1127's picture

Yeah it kinda sucks that the first child is like 19% and then with the second child it goes up to 28% and you know those greedy BM's are thinking why can't it be 38% for both of them since there are two so multiply 19 X 2 which equals 38%. I think they feel that their Ex's should have no life after them - the way CS is figured totally sucks!!

Rags's picture

Google "Child Support Calculator" for your state. Usually there are several. Use the one that the CS office uses and you should bet pretty close to what a court in your area would typically order for the situation you are in.

The majority of states (but not all) use some form of the income shares model for stipulating a CS amount. Income shares uses several factors for determining CS including but not limited to BM's income, BioDad's income, % parenting time (what percentage of the time does each parent have the kid(s)), number of non-joint children ........

Though not a usual consideration, some states/jurisdictions will consider a S-Parents income if that income is higher than what is typical for that area. In our case the SpermIdiot (my SS's BioDad) gets a $1000/mo income credit to lower his income for calculation of CS due to my income. That credit is the max allowable in the jurisdiction where my SS's case is located and only reduces BioDad's CS obligation by ~$50/mo.

In our case my wife makes about twice what BioDad makes and BioDad still pays ~$380/mo in CS. I make about three times what BioDad makes so he gets the $1000/mo income credit because as the idiot in the black robe in family law court said "StepDad makes a good living that provides an artificual life style for the child. BioDad should not be penalized by having to support that lifestyle". My SS is an only child in our home but is one of four out-of-wedlock spawn by three different mothers for BioDad. We have our son (mySS) ~314 days/yr and the SpermClan has our son (my SS) for ~51 days/yr.

The primary official goal of CS is to ensure that both BioParents participate in the financial support of their kid(s). Who makes more has less to do with CS than who has custody and cares for the child most of the time. The income shares model stipulates how much money is used for supporting a child based on the combined income of the BioParents then divides that responsibility by who has the kid what percentage of time.

An interesting characteristic of the income shares model is that if the CPs income goes up and the NCPs stays the same CS can increase. The total amount of money allocated for the kid(s) increases so CS can increase even if the income of the person who pays CS goes down.

This has been the case in our situation. Every time the SpermIdiot has tried to get CS reduced due to his adding another spawn or making less money we have had to submit out income information. My wife's income has gone up consistently between each of the SpermIdiot's attempts to lower CS. Each time he has tried to lower CS it goes up because my wife income goes up.

Even in situations with 50/50 parenting time there is usually one parent that the Court stipulates as the CP and one who is the NCP. The NCP usually ends up paying CS regardless of % parenting time.

The system sucks regardless of which side of the blended family equation you are on IMHO. It burns my ass that the SpermIdiot benefits from my income and my wife is the CP who receives CS from the SpermIdiot. I have a number of friends who are the NCP in their situation and get hosed for insane amounts of CS that their Xs spend on cars, vacations and cosmetic surgery rather than on supporting the kids.

Fortunately for us …… our kid (my SS) just turned 18 so we don’t have to deal with the SpermClan any more. However, they will blow a gasket when he starts college because CS re-engages until SS’s 23rd b-day as long as he is a full time college student.

Do some reasearch and you should be able to figure out why your DH pays what he pays.

Good luck,

ownpersonalopinion1's picture

It's usually based on a percent of your income. Exhubby paid me a certain percent when kids lived with me and I had to pay him the same percent when kids lived with him. It seems fair to me.