Parents: Paying Child Maintenance

Parents: Paying Child Maintenance

Both parents are legally obliged to support their children in accordance with their ability to do so. Most jurisdictions have establish child maintenance standards, which provide a formula for determining child support based on a proportion of each parent's gross income. Such issues are rarely a concern for the court during a committed relationship. But when parents divorce or cease to live together with their children as a family, the courts are normally required to establish the sum of child maintenance a non-custodial parent must pay. This issue can be reached by agreement or by arguing about it in the courtroom. Like alimony, the child support issue, may be included into the divorce judgment or may be provided for in a marital separation agreement. If a non-custodial parent has other lawful responsibilities, they will also be considered in deciding on child support. For instance, if the non-custodial parent is paying child support from a previous relationship, it will be taken into consideration. Living expenses, such as food and rent will also be considered by the court.

However, child support payments will not be reduced to make it easier for the non-custodial parent to pay discretionary obligations. For the court to establish the proper amount of child maintenance, both parents are to complete a financial declaration that is signed under penalty of perjury. Each parent will be required to provide complete information about their income, the nature and extent of their property holdings, including bank accounts, investments and real property and their financial obligations. These documents will be heavily rested on by the court in making the order and, hence, it is in the children's interests that the declarations be completed completely and honestly. Parents who avoid paying child maintenance will be punished. In the USA if the defendant is found guilty, he or she may be imprisoned. Or, the guilty parent may be put on probation and allowed to stay free if he or she pays all off child support and makes all future payments in a timely fashion.