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Legal Directory for Legal Help and SupportArticle Details
Child Maintenance as a Parents' Responsibility |
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| Date Added: June 21, 2010 05:52:00 PM | |
| Author: elkla89 | |
| Category: Products: Business | |
Both parents are legally obliged to support their children according to their ability to do so. Most jurisdictions have child maintenance regulations in effect, which provide a formula for determining child support grounded upon a proportion of each parent's gross income. During a marriage or committed relationship, such issues are rarely a concern for the court. But when parents separate or live separately from their children, the courts are usually required to establish the sum of child support a non-custodial parent must pay. Like the issue of custody, this can be reached by agreement or by fighting it out in the courtroom. Like alimony, child support payments, may be included into the divorce judgment or may be determined in a marital separation agreement. This contested issue can be avoided, providing that both the mother and the father determine the appropriate sum of child maintenance and make this agreement part of an MSA. If a non-custodial parent has other legal responsibilities, they will also be considered in deciding on child support. For example, if the non-custodial parent is paying child maintenance from a previous relationship, the court will take that obligation into consideration. Living expenses, including food and rent will also be taken into account by the court. Yet, the court will not decrease child support payments to make it easier for the parent to pay discretionary obligations. For example, a parent cannot give money away for charity or purchase an expensive motor vehicle at the expense of supporting his or her own children. For the court to set the appropriate sum of child maintenance, both parties are to fill out a financial declaration. Each parent will be required to completely reveal their income, the nature and extent of their property holdings, including current accounts, investments and real estate and their financial obligations. These documents will be heavily relied on by the court in making the order and, therefore, it is in the children's interests that the declarations be completed completely and honestly. Parents who avoid paying child maintenance can be punished. If the custodial parent sues the non-paying parent for child maintenance evasion, he or she may be taken to court. |
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