Child support is meant to cover a wide range of expenses. If it’s necessary to keep your child safe and happy, it’s probably something that your child support should be helping with. Our Morris County, NJ child support attorneys can help you negotiate a fair arrangement or modify an existing child support agreement.
What Should Child Support Cover?
Essentially, child support is there to cover the basic expenses that come with raising every child. Your support payments should help out with things like:
- Food
- Clothing
- Shelter
- Transportation
- Health insurance premiums and co-pays
- Any uninsured medical costs
- The cost of childcare
- The cost of extracurricular activities
When you have a child, these are the kinds of things that they will always need. Even if you get a divorce, both parents should be contributing to such expenses. This is why child support arrangements are made.
What Happens If My Ex is Late With Support Payments?
If you are the custodial parent, your ex should be sending you child support payments that help you cover the expenses that come with raising children. If they are not sending you money like they are supposed to, that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
First, you should try talking to your ex. One missed payment could just be an oversight or something that happened because of an unexpected financial issue. You may be able to get things back on track easily. If your ex continues to miss payments, you may have to bring them to court. A judge can encourage them to pay by holding potential punishments, like jail time or a suspension of their driver’s license, over their heads.
Can You Change What Child Support Can Cover?
It’s also important to remember that your children’s needs are going to change over time. As they get older, they might enroll in more extracurricular activities, like sports or music lessons, and the costs of these can add up quickly. What if one or more of your kids need braces? Is that kind of work covered by child support? How are college and higher learning costs dealt with?
Your child support can help you with expenses like this. If your child’s activities are costing more money, you may be able to ask for more money formally, in court. You could also just ask your ex to contribute a bit more or split the cost of certain new expenses. As for braces, if they are medically necessary and not just cosmetic, that’s covered under your original support agreement. Finally, when it comes to college costs, that matter can often be negotiated. The point is that your child support agreement and what the payments can cover are malleable, so it’s possible to ask for changes if a new arrangement will better fit the needs of your children.
Talk to an Attorney
Whether you have questions about your current child support arrangement or you’re just getting ready to file for divorce, our experienced attorneys can help. Contact Townsend, Tomaio & Newmark to schedule a consultation with our team today.
