Children have the right to financial support from both parents when parents divorce, separate, or even if they were never married and have split up. Child support, which one parent pays to the other parent—typically the non-custodial parent pays the custodial parent who the child lives with more often—helps with the day-to-day costs and additional expenses of raising children in New Jersey.
An experienced family law attorney can help you understand what items you may pay for or expect payment for, dependent on your particular situation. Your attorney can also help you negotiate to get the best possible outcome.
WHAT DOES CHILD SUPPORT PAY FOR IN NJ?
There are both basic expenses and items that may be added to the support obligation you pay or receive depending upon the specific circumstances.
ITEMS INCLUDED IN BASIC CHILD SUPPORT OBLIGATION
The basic child support obligation includes helping pay for:
- Food — This includes food and non-alcoholic beverages purchased for meals at home or away from home, such as at school or in restaurants.
- Housing — Mortgage payments, property taxes, property insurance, home maintenance and repairs, utilities, rent payments, major appliances, furniture, and vacation lodging are some of the expenditures included in housing.
- Clothing — All children’s clothes including school uniforms and footwear, which excludes specialized shoes for sports activities, diapers, jewelry, and cleaning, maintaining, and storage of clothing.
- Transportation — Monthly payments for car ownership or leasing, excluding a car mainly used by the child, vehicle repair and maintenance costs, and public transportation.
- Entertainment — Costs associated with hobbies, attendance at recreational and social events, sports equipment, video games, mobile devices, and more.
- Health care — Unreimbursed medical and dental costs up to $250 per child for such items as non-prescription drugs, health services, or co-pays.
- Miscellaneous — Some of the miscellaneous items include haircuts, personal care products, books, and school supplies.
EXPENSES THAT MAY BE ADDED TO SUPPORT OBLIGATION
Other expenses that may be added to the child support obligation include:
- Work-related childcare
- Health insurance premiums
- Additional costs of unreimbursed medical and dental care
- Private school tuition
- College expenses
- Expenses for special needs children
- Travel costs for visitation.
You can read the full description of basic and added expenses at New Jersey Child Support Guidelines. For a very general estimate of what you may pay or receive, go to the state’s child support guidelines calculator. However, understand that the figure you could come up with here is only a rough estimate and the actual figure for your case may be very different, especially if you are undergoing a high-net-worth divorce with income that exceeds guideline threshold amounts.
HOW IS CHILD SUPPORT DETERMINED?
What additional items are included in support and how much is paid may be decided through a settlement agreement between you and the other parent, often with the help of your respective divorce lawyers, and potentially with mediation assistance. You can then provide the agreement to the court for review and approval. Negotiating child support is often the ideal situation because you and the other parent know your family, lifestyle, and the individual needs of your children best. As long as you are able to compromise in order to arrive at a fair resolution, this is often the best way to go.
If you cannot reach consensus between yourselves because of animosity between you or simple disagreement about what support should pay for and how much, then the court will make the determination for you. While a judge doesn’t know your family’s overall circumstances like you do, so their decision may not be as closely tailored to your family needs as you would like, the court will take on the task of determining support if you and the other parent are at an impasse.
In any situation, you can turn to your attorney for legal guidance in negotiating a child support agreement or advocating for fairness in support decisions before the court.
WHAT FACTORS THE COURT CONSIDERS IN DETERMINING CHILD SUPPORT IN NEW JERSEY
When judges handle child support cases, they look at a variety of criteria to arrive at decisions about who pays support and how much. Factors the court considers include:
- Child custody arrangements
- How parenting time is divided including overnights
- The incomes and financial circumstances of both parents
- Parents’ earning capacities
- Children’s needs
- Childcare costs
- Ages and health of parents
- How many children there are
- Children’s healthcare concerns
- The existing standard of living of the child
- Whether a parent pays child support for children from another relationship
- Whether alimony is being paid.
You can see that there are numerous considerations that go into child support determinations. It’s to your advantage to work with a skilled attorney who stands up for your rights and the best interests of your child in ensuring you get a reasonable outcome, whether you are paying or receiving support.
REACH OUT TO OUR NEW JERSEY LAW FIRM
Outside the basic child support obligation, your child may have special educational needs, expensive hobbies and interests, or medical concerns, for example, that must be factored into support payments. If you are the parent expecting to pay support, like most parents, you want your child to be well-cared-for financially, but you also do not want to be taken advantage of and pay too much.
If you are receiving support, you want to get a decision that thoroughly takes into account all the costs of raising your child in the manner to which they are accustomed, and which does not place an unfair financial burden on you.
No matter whether you are the paying parent or the parent receiving support, we can help you obtain a result that considers everyone’s interests. To speak with a New Jersey lawyer about your case, call [MFR] Men’s & Fathers’ Rights Divorce Lawyers at (201) 880-9770. Our attorneys have decades of combined experience helping clients satisfactorily resolve child support concerns.
