	Article Directory		Article Submission Service		Article Marketing Blog		Publishers		Member Log In

Article Directory :: Legal Articles

Understanding Child Support Payments

By Harvey L Cox

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 07Nov2009
Word count: 403
Viewed: 69 time(s)

Get Free Content For Your Site

Child support is the amount of money one parent must pay the other after a divorce. The money is suppose to be used for expenses related to raising the children. The amount of money to be paid for child support depends on many different factors.

As a general rule, the parent who gets primary custody of the children is the one who receives child support. Child support payments are determined, in part, by the amount of money the paying parent makes and the number of children who require the support payments.

Specific child support laws vary between states. To get the specifics for the state in which you live, you need to either discuss the matter with your attorney or do some online research.

Child support is one of those bitter issues that continues stir up problems between divorced parents. One of the most common problems is paying parents complaining that the receiving parent is not using the money for the benefit of the children. Often paying parents also look at child support as a control issue. They believe that by withholding payment they are controlling the ex-spouse and making it hard for them to survive financially.

Some paying parents simply can't afford to pay. They often find it difficult to maintain their own standard of living while paying a huge monthly amount in child support to their ex-spouse. Sometimes there are simply changes in finances due to the lose of a job, getting remarried or having medical problems.

For whatever reason, there are millions of dollars in unpaid child support owed to parents all over the United States. Some states are more aggressive than others in trying to collect that unpaid support. Some states, for instance, will refuse to renew your driver's license or your hunting license if you owe unpaid child support. Many state attorney general offices are also intercepting income tax refunds and applying the money to unpaid child support. To find out how aggressive your state is at collecting, you should talk to an attorney licensed to practice law in your state.

For many who are divorced, child support obligations are a financial burden. To lessen that burden, the best course of action during a divorce is for divorcing parents to be reasonable with each other and agree on an amount of support that is both helpful to the receiving parent and not overly burdensome to the paying parent.

Harvey L. Cox is the creator of NoLegalese Publishing, THE legal self-help web site dedicated to helping you know and understand the law and your legal rights in plain english. For more information, go to NoLegalesePublishing.com

EasyPublish™ this article - publishers click here