Valid Reasons To Change a Child Support Agreement

At first glance, the realities of child support seem cut and dried: a parent pays a fixed percentage of income until the child’s eighteenth birthday. Extenuating circumstances, however, may lead to modifications. There are valid reasons to change a child support agreement, whether petitioning to receive more or pay less.

A Change in Income

Both increases or decreases in a parent’s income can affect how much child support that parent owes. If a parent receives a promotion at work or leaps to a new place of employment with higher compensation, the support his or her child receives should remain commensurate with earnings. In instances in which the court automatically withdraws child support from paychecks, there may be no need for updating the arrangement, but in cases where spouses have negotiated their divorce agreement to include direct payments, one spouse may attempt to obfuscate an increase in income to withhold that money from future child support. If you suspect that your ex-spouse has something to hide, you may wish to get your attorney involved and renegotiate the terms of those payments.

Conversely, if a parent should lose a job due to layoffs, that parent may be able to petition the court for a temporary adjustment—though not an outright pause—of child support payments while reckoning with a lack of income. When a loss of income is a consequence of incarceration, recourse may be limited for both parties. Many states, including Illinois, consider incarceration to be a voluntary lack of employment, one for which a parent is not off the hook. Parents who cannot earn in jail or prison will still see child support debt accrue—after all, the child’s needs have not changed.

Inheritances

Parents who inherit sizable sums of money may not be able to shelter that bequest from the court. Should the parent receiving support discover the nature of such an inheritance that significantly modifies the other parent’s capacity to support their child, that parent can petition the court to modify the existing agreement. The child in question need not be outlined in the will to receive a share of this windfall.