These support payments are used for a wide variety of expenses that go along with raising children: clothes, school needs, water, electricity, and rent.
Therefore, it's important to get the right amount of money for your children when you're working out the divorce settlement.
Because the safe rearing of children is important to the government, there are federal laws in place to protect how child support is determined.
Under these laws, the states are required to establish guidelines that detail how much money is to be paid in support payments.
These guidelines ensure that there is standardization amongst all courts in a given state, and that children and their custodial parents are not being unfairly deprived of money.
The Guidelines Because the federal laws on the subject require the states to establish their own laws concerning child support payments, there are minor variations from jurisdiction to jurisdiction concerning what expenses are covered, how much a non-custodial is expected to pay for certain things, etc.
However, most states recognize that these payments cover the following items:
- The child's share of the rent or mortgage.
- The child's share of the utility bills, such as the water bill, the electricity bill, the gas bill, and even the telephone bill.
- The money required for sanitation of the child.
- Food for the child.
- Clothes for the child.
- Various incidental expenses, ranging from school supplies to gasoline needed to drive the children places.
That is, if a child is used to an extravagant lifestyle, more money is required in child support.
Some states allow the following to be covered by the support payments:
- The costs of higher education.
- The costs of extracurricular activities.
- Private school enrollment.
- Medical expenses not covered by insurance.
- The costs of prescription medication.
- Gifts for the child.
- Family vacations.
- Allowance
- The lifestyle of the parent or the parent's new spouse.