2019 Child Support update: Am I paying, or receiving, the right amount?
If you pay child support, or receive child support, for dependent children, then it may be worth taking a few minutes to review your Child Support Order (formerly known as Order of Child Support) to see if it’s time to run the numbers again and make changes. Important changes to child support went into effect in January 2019 including a much-needed update to the Washington State Child Support Schedule. This is the table that uses the combined net incomes of both parents and determines how much the basic child support payment will be for the children. The numbers have been updated to more accurately reflect what it actually costs to raise a child, and they have done away with different support amounts for the two different age categories: Category A, children age 0-11 and Category B, age 12 and above. This means you no longer have to recalculate support for children when they turn 12. There are also other important changes including concerning who provides, and who pays for, health care coverage for children.
Child support is not just about the basic, standard transfer payment, and sharing health care costs – both for premiums and out-of-pocket costs. A child support order also gives you the option to include expenses such as schooling, extracurricular activities, childcare, summer camps and such. Chances are that the child support order entered when your kids were under school age, may not have contemplated school sports, band camps and tuition expenses.
Life happens and people change jobs, or their incomes go up, or down, for other reasons, and financial situations change often enough in one or both households that it is worth taking a quick look at child support every couple of years since child support is based on the parents’ incomes. If you are one of those people who haven’t gone back and looked at the child support since the divorce or parentage was finalized a decade or so ago, it is probably worth doing now. The statute does set forth criteria about how often you can modify or adjust child support and what criteria you need to meet. However, if you haven’t done it in the past 2 years and especially if there have been changes in your financial situation, it might be worth taking the time to review it now to ensure you are either paying or receiving the correct amount.
I can help you by recalculating child support and advising you about whether you can modify or adjust child support. I can also prepare the pleadings you need to file with the Court to accomplish this. If Division of Child Support provides enforcement for your child support order, then you can contact your case worker to ask about an administrative review of your child support. However, anyone can consider an adjustment or modification through the courts.
If it’s time to pull out the Child Support Order, blow off the dust and review the numbers, please feel free to call me for help.
