Need Help! Child Support Up For Review?

Question

We live in Washington State. My husband pays child support for his twins, which is up for review. Recently, we had a new baby together. In looking at the paperwork, I don't see where they take into account having another child. How is this figure accounted for in the amount required to pay?

Answer 1

child support is solely based on incomes of both parents and state guidelines, has nothing to do with the amount of children.

Answer 2

Congratulations on your new child. It looks like your husband has a current support order which is being reviewed for adjustment by Washington DCS. Unfortunately, you will not find a box to check for the existence of other children on the DCS paperwork. In fact, DCS is known for applying standards that disregard the existence of children from other relationships.

Other Washington dads have also been in this situation. One solution that I have seen is a Washington dad who went above DCS and filed a court action to lower child support based on the existence of other children.

Washington law allows a father to lower a child support order for this specific reason RCW 26.19.075(1)(e). The court action is known as child support modification, and it is a routine process. Child support modification through the court is the only way to stop DCS from applying child support amounts that are unfair.

Washington child support orders should be decided in relation to existing factors such as the existence of children from other relationships.

DCS typically uses a calculation known as the “Whole Family Method” by which they determine child support amounts for fathers with multiple children from different relationships. This method of calculation has been known to result in unfair child support orders. Each child from every relationship deserves a fair amount of support from the non-custodial parent.

In 2000, the court decided that the method used by DCS was not the best method to calculate child support for father with multiple children from different relationships. In re Marriage of Bell 101 Wn. App 366.

Ironically, I recently wrote an e-book regarding this matter. I also believe that our website may be helpful to you. I will include both links below.

Good luck and best wishes with your new child.

E-Book (Contained in E-Reader)

http://lendahandlegal.com/EBooks/UF1_Ebo...

Website

http://lendahandlegal.com

Blog

http://lendahandlegal.com/blog

Child Support Modification

http://lendahandlegal.com/csmodification...

Answer 3

In the state of Massachusettes it goes according to how many children you have and their ages, also the amount of money the parents each make separate from eachother.