My step son just moved in for this school year. He is 16, and is a great kid. His mother, however, is whacko. She was working as an administrative assistant making $15 per hour full time. When her son moved in with us, she took another job at Walmart working part time, and making 8.45 an hour. What can be done about this? As soon as the child support is modified for my step son living with us, not her, I am sure she is going to get a better job making significantly more than she now makes.

You can hope that the judge will see this and make a support ruling based on her ability to earn income, not something she just settled on for the time being. When they look at income they should be looking at the last 12 months, pay stubs/tax returns etc.
A judge can sometimes even order support (the minimum anyway) on someone that isn't working, basically telling them they need to find work to support their child.
Years ago, I even had a judge modify my court ordered support I was paying (my middle daughter) I had been working a regular job, switched jobs for one month/making $2 more an hour, that job didn't work out and I went back to the regular job. I was ordered to pay support based on the higher job that I couldn't even keep because "I had the ability to earn more" It didn't even matter that I could not keep that job, that it was only for a month, that at least I was working period.
But.....when it comes right down to it, it is still going to depend on how it's presented to the judge and even more about how that particular judge feels like ruling in that case.

Welcome to the forum Tony's

Don is one of the many experts on the forum when it comes to child support issues...so I don't have anythign valuable to add except welcome and hope ya stick around.

Hello Tony's Woman. I was in court today for the very same issue. My Ex earned $24/hr when we divorced and that is what the original support was based on. He lost that job and spent some time in jail because of his own behavior. He now works for about $11/hr and tried to get the support lowered based on that income. The judge ruled that he is "Voluntarily Under-Employed". The judge did not modify the support today but said that he had 60 days to get a better job or a second job to meet his obligations. He also is getting $ from his parents to pay the support. The judge will use that as income as well when we go back.

That being said...The NCP cannot take lower paying jobs to avoid child support. I hired an attorney to take care of this but the ex used the child support unit which was free. Try the Child support unit first and if you dont get anywhere, hire an attorney.

Hope this helps

quote:

Originally posted by glidesmom:
Hello Tony's Woman. I was in court today for the very same issue. My Ex earned $24/hr when we divorced and that is what the original support was based on. He lost that job and spent some time in jail because of his own behavior. He now works for about $11/hr and tried to get the support lowered based on that income. The judge ruled that he is "Voluntarily Under-Employed". The judge did not modify the support today but said that he had 60 days to get a better job or a second job to meet his obligations. He also is getting $ from his parents to pay the support. The judge will use that as income as well when we go back.

That being said...The NCP cannot take lower paying jobs to avoid child support. I hired an attorney to take care of this but the ex used the child support unit which was free. Try the Child support unit first and if you dont get anywhere, hire an attorney.

Hope this helps

Yep, that's exactly how it's supposed to work. Just because the NCP gets a lower paying job doesn't mean they are automatically relieved of paying the normal child support. Now if only cases were decided on consistently all the time. That's one of the very aggravating things about this stuff, there are still occasional decisions made my judges that just don't follow the normal guidelines, and make no sense. We see it occasionally in custody/visitation/child support cases and when it does happen it makes you really question the "system"
Tony's Woman......I do hope your judge will make the right decisions as in glidesmom's case. And glidesmom, good to hear how your case went

Thanks for all the wonderful advice. I really appreciate it. In this case, it's all so very complicated. Tony's ex-wife is now living with another man, although they are not married. Between Tony and his ex, they have two girls and one boy. The girls live with the mom and the boy lives with us. In Wisconsin, The calculation is Tony's gross income times 25% minus the ex-wife's gross income times 17%. She has taken this job, earning much less, knowing that she has enough income from her live-in boyfriend to bridge the gap until such time as the child support is recalculated. Tony's income has increased, and hers has decreased. So, in the end, the child support would not change, yet we would be supporting her son. It just doesn't seem fair. I will look at gildesmom's posts to see what happened in that case.

When you go to court to modify child support, address this issue to the court . If you get a good Judge he will look at her earnings history not what she is presently earning. If as you wrote is true, she might have just cutt back her hours at the better paying job in order to make you beleive she is making less money. Ronald Reagan said it best "trust but verify" The potential earning is what needs to be stressed to the court! Good luck!